Renesmee's First Christmas
by TheSingingGirl
Summary: In honour of the festive season, I decided to write the Christmas that had all of one page devoted to it in Breaking Dawn. From Renesmee's point of view, this is her first Christmas.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Beginning from the moment she woke up, this is Renesmee's first Christmas from her point of view. I have a confession to make: had I waited to post this after I finished writing it, it would have been a Christmas story published in February. Hopefully I will write faster now, but I have taken the executive decision to post the first chapter now, rather than wait. Therefore, yes, there is more, that will be posted - hopefully - soon.

* * *

"Renesmee, darling? Time to wake up sweetie. It's Christmas day."

I opened my eyes and blinked as the dim light hit me. Momma and Daddy were both there like every day, smiling at me, and they both held something wrapped in shiny stripy paper. That's when I remembered: Christmas!

Everybody in my family (and a lot of the guests) had told me about Christmas. Auntie Rosalie told me stories about sparkly balls and beautiful parties, Granddad Carlisle told me the tale of the nativity and baby Jesus, Uncle Emmett told me about Santa Claus and flying reindeer that were impossible to hunt, and Grandma Esme told me about the Christmases before Daddy met Mom. Nobody liked to talk about last Christmas, especially Mummy and Daddy. When I asked, Grandma Esme just said it was a very sad time because Mom and Dad weren't together.

I had put a picture of Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper in her head, and she swallowed, but not like she was drinking.

"Yes," she said. "Like Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper aren't together with us now."

Momma and Daddy didn't look very sad now. Mom put her little shiny parcel down to lift me out of bed and cuddle me. I put my hand on her cold cheek and put a picture of the presents in her head. She and Daddy both laughed, but I didn't know what was funny.

"Such impatience! And for presents, too," Daddy said, looking at Mom.

"No doubt who she gets that from," Mom said. "Alright, yours first."

Daddy smiled at her and gently placed his present in my hands. I beamed at him and very quickly I tore the shiny shiny paper off. I didn't rip it, though, I just destroyed the sticky tape holding it together. I liked the gold and silver paper a lot; I didn't want to ruin it.

In the middle of all the paper was a little blue metal thing, with tiny buttons and long white wires coming out from it, like a tail that split in two. At the end of each wire was a little pod.

"It's a music player," Daddy said. He reached over and put the pods in my ears, then pressed a couple of the teeny buttons. A little screen flashed and some words moved across it, but I was listening to the music that was coming from the pods.

"Headphones," Daddy said. "They're called headphones."

I didn't really listen to him, but I did start singing. It was the song Daddy always sang to me, the one he said he had written for me, played on the piano. I grinned happily and closed my eyes to listen properly. It sounded like the piano was right there in the room with me, even though it wouldn't fit. I thought I could get lost in the music and forget where I was. Momma laughed as I sang along.

"Aren't you going to say thank you?" she said to me.

"There's really no point, Bella, you know I can hear how she feels," Daddy said.

"Nothing wrong with making manners a habit," Momma said to him.

I stopped singing and opened my eyes for one second to look at Daddy and think _thank you_ before starting again.

"You're welcome," Daddy smiled, "but don't you want to open your mother's present, too?"

I pulled the pods—headphones—out of my ears, and Daddy picked up Momma's little present, wrapped in the same gold and silver shiny paper and with a shiny gold bow on top. I reached out and picked it out of his hand, leaving the blue music player where it had been. It was in the shape of a box, and I quickly lifted the sticky tape off the paper, which Mom put down on the table next to my little bed. She knew I would keep the paper for later. I liked shiny things. I saw I was right about the present: inside was a little black box. I turned it over, looking at the soft material that it was covered in. It was the same material that my red party dress from three weeks ago was made of. Velvet.

"Inside," Mom said, smiling.

I found the line where the box would open and pulled the lid back. It stayed connected on one side, like a door. Hinged, that was the word. I kept learning so many new words every day; it was sometimes difficult to think of the one I wanted. I preferred to use pictures. I flipped open the box and felt my eyes go wider.

Inside the box was a little cushion made of velvet, like the box, and on the cushion was a beautiful golden necklace. It was exactly the same colour as Daddy's eyes when he had just hunted. Daddy smiled when I thought that; it was nice that I didn't have to tell him everything. He smiled more and I pulled the necklace out of the box. The chain was quite thin and it was gold too. The actual… pendant was shaped like an oval and it had pictures of leaves and vines round the edge, engraved. So pretty. Then I saw that the pendant had hinges too.

Daddy took the box out of my hands so I could open the pendant. It was a little bit tricky because it was quite small and it was difficult to find anything to hold on to, but I had little fingers and long nails so I managed.

I recognised the little picture straight away. It was from about six weeks ago, when Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper were still at home, and it was a picture of all of us: Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper, Auntie Rose and Uncle Em, Grandma Esme and Granddad Carlisle, Momma, Daddy, Jacob and me. Seth had taken the picture because there was no one else left. I was in the middle, with Mom holding me. Daddy and Jacob were on either side, and everyone else was gathered round. Auntie Rosalie was as far away from Jake as she could get, but everybody was smiling at the camera. I was very small then, and my hair only just hit my shoulders, but it still looked like me.

The picture was really very tiny, but I could see everyone's faces properly. Maybe Granddad Charlie wouldn't, because he was human, and Momma said humans couldn't see as well as her and me, but everyone else would.

"You can change the picture whenever you like," Mom said. "I've got lots of them which I've made smaller for you."

I smiled. Next to the picture, there was some strange writing in beautiful slanting letters. I reached up to Mom's cheek without looking away to put a picture in her head of the writing, and a question. I could read easily, I liked reading, but I couldn't read this.

"It means I love you more than my own life," Momma said. Her voice went a bit wobbly at the end but I was still looking at the funny writing. That looked nothing like any words I knew.

"It's in French," Daddy said, and his voice was a bit shaky too. "Je t'aime plus que ma propre vie."

The words were strange, and the way they meant nothing and something at the same time was weird and wonderful. It sounded beautiful.

"Do you want to put it on?" Mom asked.

"Yes, please," I said out loud.

Daddy moved closer to pick up the locket and fasten it round my neck. His fingers were very cold, but I was used to being hotter than everyone else. Except Jacob, of course. Jacob was warm like me.

"There," Daddy said, and he took a step back to look at me. "You look beautiful," he announced, and I smiled happily.

"Just like her father," Mom added, and they smiled at each other.

"Right," Momma said suddenly, "Better get you dressed to go to Granddad's."

"Actually," Daddy said, "best put off getting dressed until after we've gone to see the rest of the family."

I frowned. Why?

"Ah," said Momma. So she knew why. I would just have to wait and see "Alright then, let's go."

Then we were running through the trees. I loved running with Momma or Daddy or Jacob. They were faster than me, and I could look around me without worrying about where I was running. There was so much I hadn't seen in this huge exciting world. Of course I knew the way from the Big House to the Little Cottage and I had seen everything there, but sometimes if I was lucky I would see a squirrel or a new type of bird, and I could show it to Grandma Esme and she would tell me its name. Grandma Esme loved looking at birds.

I didn't see any birds today, but I didn't mind because today was already special, and soon we were at the House.

Jacob was waiting outside on the porch for me. When he saw me, a great big grin appeared on his face, like it always did.

"Nessie!" he yelled, and jumped off the porch to come and see me. "Merry Christmas!" he grinned, and then he remembered Mummy and Daddy. "And merry Christmas to you, too."

"Merry Christmas, Jake," Mom said, smiling. Daddy did that funny thing with his eyes where they went all the way round in a circle.

I giggled and reached out for Jake. Momma sighed but put me in his arms so I could tell him about the presents.

"Pretty," he said when he saw the locket. "And you got it on! Cute!"

He moved me to one arm so he could pull something out of his pocket. It was another present, but this one wasn't wrapped in shiny paper. Instead, it was in a cute brown cloth bag with strings tied in a knot. I quickly untied the strings and opened the bag.

"See, Nessie can untie it!" Jake said to Mom. "Your own daughter!"

"Very funny, Jake," Mom said, but I wasn't listening. I turned the bag upside down and a loop of braided threads fell out, twisted together like when Auntie Rosalie plaited my hair, tied together to make a circle.

Using his free hand, Jake picked it up and put it on my wrist. It was a bit big so it slipped on easily.

"Since you grow so fast, I thought I'd better make it big," he said.

I lifted my wrist closer to my eyes to look properly. I couldn't tell how many different threads there were, but there were lots, all with colours that were just a little bit different. They were reds and browns, and I could see the colour of my hair, and the colour of Jake's fur, and the colour of Jake's skin, and the colour of the tree trunks, and the colour of blood, and the colour of Momma's eyes, and the colour of my eyes… I couldn't name them all. I pressed my hand to Jake's warm cheek to tell him how much I loved it.

"Aw, stop it, Ness, you're making me all embarrassed," Jake said in that funny voice that makes lying an okay thing to do.

Daddy didn't seem quite as happy. "So long as that doesn't have the same significance as a ring, Jacob," he said in an almost-growl voice.

"Of course not!" Jake said. "Ugh, we've been through this, that'd be sick!"

Momma sighed again. "Reminder: some of us haven't got a clue what's going on?"

I touched Jake's cheek again, this time with a question.

"Um, well, usually guys would give rings like this bracelet to girls when they ask them to… uh… get married. Quileute guys, I mean," he said, looking at Mom. "Anyway, that's why I did a bracelet, not a ring. Thought you might freak," he said to Daddy.

"But wasn't the point of the rings that they took such a long time to make that no man would make one unless he truly cared about his betrothed?" Daddy said, even closer to a growl now.

"Okay, so the bracelet took longer, but having something to do with my hands keeps me sane. You know how much time I put in for that wolf charm I made Bella?"

"Edward," Mom said quietly. "Don't spoil it for her. You know Jake meant no harm." She sounded a bit strange, a bit sad. "It's beautiful, Jake," she said.

"Bella?" Daddy said, and his voice sounded nothing like a growl now. "Are you alright?"

I twisted to look at Mom as she smiled. I could tell it wasn't a proper smile, a happy smile, but she was pretending. "Of course I'm alright. Shall we go inside? I'm sure everyone's waiting for us."

Daddy still looked worried but he didn't argue. Maybe he wanted to talk to Mom alone later. They often had moments when it looked like they were going to say something, but then they would look at me and shake their heads. It was a little bit annoying, actually. Daddy knew I knew, but he didn't ever mention it.

Jake looked like he hadn't noticed anything, but he might have been pretending. "Sure, sure," he said and we all went into the house.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Here's chapter two! I'm guesstimating that this fic will be either three or four chapters, depending on what happens at Charlie's and when Renesmee falls asleep. I need to check with the book!

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Daddy still looked worried but he didn't argue. Maybe he wanted to talk to Mom alone later. They often had moments when it looked like they were going to say something, but then they would look at me and shake their heads. It was a little bit annoying, actually. Daddy knew I knew, but he didn't ever mention it.

Jake looked like he hadn't noticed anything, but he might have been pretending. "Sure, sure," he said and we all went into the house.

The lounge was quite crowded, even more than normal. The Denali coven were there, Garrett, Zafrina and Senna, Benjamin and Tia, Maggie, Siobahn and Liam, Charlotte and Peter. I wondered if Jake could even remember their names. It didn't really matter, because none of the vampires really talked to Jacob, except for our family. It was quite funny, really, because they would speak to me when I was sitting on his lap and completely ignore him.

The rest of my family, except for Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper of course, were waiting for us in the middle of the room.

"Morning, sweetie, merry Christmas," Auntie Rosalie smiled. "Morning, Edward, Bella," she said, but she didn't say anything to Jake. I giggled.

"Merry Christmas, Blondie!" Jake said cheerfully. A couple of people sniggered; Uncle Emmett was one of them. Auntie Rosalie elbowed him.

I quickly touched Jake's cheek and then jumped down to run and hug Auntie Rosalie. She knelt down so she was smaller than me.

"You need a shower," she said in a loud voice. "For some inexplicable reason you smell of wet dog."

Jacob laughed. So did I, and so did Momma and Daddy.

"Can we skip the barbed comments?" Momma said. "Christmas is supposed to be a time for goodwill and peace to all men and all that."

"Well then, women and dogs don't count," Auntie Rosalie argued.

"Nevertheless, we do have to get to Charlie's soon," Mom said.

"As if I'd ever let us be late," teased Daddy.

Grandma Esme sighed. "Don't encourage them," she said.

Granddad Carlisle laughed quietly. "Shall we do presents?" he said. I grinned.

Kate laughed from where she, Tanya, Carmen and Eleazar were gathered round watching. "Isn't it strange that so far as I can see, you get things from your family all the time and don't bat an eyelid, but if it's wrapped up and given with ceremony, it's the most exciting thing in the world?"

I blinked. I hadn't thought of that.

"Don't spoil it for her, Kate," Carmen said in her funny voice with a lisp and her 'r's stretched out so it sounded like more than one letter. "It is Christmas, after all."

Garrett, the one who really should be Kate's mate, wandered over from the window. "I never really understood Christmas," he said lazily. "It's a festival because some kid was born. And a human one at that."

"Mm," Auntie Rosalie said. Or hummed, I supposed. "Now, Renesmee's birthday should be a national holiday."

I frowned. "But then I'd only get one!" I said.

Everybody laughed, but I didn't know what was funny. Maybe that was a bit greedy.

"Quite right too," said Daddy. So I wasn't doing anything wrong.

Jake cleared his throat. "Shall we get on with it?" he said. I thought he probably wanted to get away from all the vampires who weren't like us. He didn't like them killing humans.

After that, it was a whirl of presents. Auntie Rosalie gave me a new party dress to wear today that she had made herself. It was green, like a Christmas tree or holly leaves, she said. In the parcel with the dress was a cardigan that was the colour of holly berries. Uncle Emmett got me some red shoes to go with the dress and cardigan, but I thought Auntie Rosalie probably got them for him. Granddad Carlisle gave a tiny little Bible for me to read, so I could find out the Christmas story for myself. It was covered in red material and it was the same colour as my shoes. Uncle Emmett thought it was a bit strange.

"You're giving the kid a Bible?" he asked.

"Unlike you, Emmett, she enjoys reading," Granddad reminded him.

Grandma Esme gave me a photo album. Half of it was already full of pictures of me and my family, and half was empty so I could add pictures later.

Then Tanya gave me a little clip from her hair and Zafrina showed me lots of pictures of her home in the winter, all the most beautiful wintry sights she had seen. Lots of the other guests came to give me a hug and wish me merry Christmas: cheery Benjamin and quiet Tia, Maggie, the one would was always so sharp, big Siobahn, all of the Denalis who Jacob liked and gentle Charlotte. Jake started fidgeting behind me again. He stayed by the door, and I knew he wanted to get away.

"Uh, guys," he said. "We kinda have to get to Charlie's soon and Nessie's not even dressed yet…"

Mom smiled at Jake. "Okay, we'll meet you by the car in five minutes or less," she promised.

Jake grinned back, waved at me, and ran out of the door.

"Can I dress her?" Auntie Rosalie immediately asked Momma.

Grandma Esme laughed. "She's not a doll, you know," she said.

Momma was laughing too. "There's no point asking me. So long as that's what Renesmee wants, I'm fine with it," she said.

"Nessie?" Auntie Rose asked me, kneeling down again to look at me. Momma sighed. She didn't like my nickname.

I put my hand on her cheek to show her a picture of me putting on my new green dress with her helping me. I also threw a picture at her of my hair in two French plaits. I felt like plaits today.

"Of course, sweetie," she said. "Come on, then."

I jumped into her arms and she carried me upstairs, picking up my dress and shoes as she went. We only had five minutes so we had to be very fast. We quickly got my pyjamas off and then I pulled the silky green dress on and Auntie Rosalie did up the hundreds of buttons at the back. She got some cute little white socks from a drawer full of my clothes and slipped them onto my feet, followed by my new red shoes.

Next I put on the red cardigan. Someone had already put my music player in my pocket, probably Daddy. I wanted to take it to show Granddad Charlie so Daddy had heard me think that, I guessed.

"And never forget accessories!" Auntie Rosalie smiled, then whirled over to another drawer to find a long piece of red silk which she tied around my waist. A sash, I realised. Like in the song: "girls in white dresses and blue satin sashes". That was one Momma had sung to me. Daddy said she had a secret penchant for quaint old musicals. She said she just liked old fashioned things.

"Are you keeping your bracelet on?" Auntie Rose asked. She didn't seem to like it, but I knew that was because Jake had given it to me. It was really funny, the way they disliked each other so much.

Once I had shown her that I was definitely keeping my bracelet on, even if it did smell of dog, she sighed and pulled me to her huge crimson bed to plait my hair. I sat with my legs crossed as she kneeled behind me. I closed my eyes as I felt the wide brush tug through my hair and tease out all the tangles, like I was a cuddly animal and she was stroking my fur. Then she pulled my curls back from my forehead and started separating locks into tiny strands at the front. Next she began twisting and twining my hair, brushing my head every time she added more hair to the braid as it grew down the back of my head. Her fingers moved very quickly because we had so little time, and I could imagine them flying in and out in between my copper curls: red and white, red and white. I felt it when the plait was finished and secured with a ribbon and the next one was started. Both plaits only took a minute; I didn't know how long it would take a human to do. The ribbons, I saw, were the same colour green as my dress.

"Thank you Auntie Rosalie!" I said, because she was behind me.

"You're welcome, darling," she said as she got up. "And now we'd best go catch up with your Mom and Dad."

"And Jacob," I reminded her out loud.

I thought I heard Uncle Emmett chuckle somewhere below us, but Auntie Rose only sighed again and picked me up off the bed. We flew downstairs and out the front door; I twisted round to wave at everybody through the open door before we were round the corner of the house and in front of the garage.

"Five minutes and… forty eight seconds," Jake said as Auntie Rose put me down in the car.

She ignored him.

"Hey, you don't have a comeback!" he said happily. "Mark the day," he told me. I giggled.

"Just because I don't deign to respond to your every aspersion does not mean I am unable to," my aunt hissed.

Jake frowned. "But you responded then," he pointed out.

Momma laughed. "Hey Jake, I thought you actually wanted to get to Charlie's."

"Sure, sure," he said, still smiling. He walked round the side of the car to slide in next to me. He reached over to pull my seatbelt across and plug it in with a loud _click_.

Mom and Dad got into the front seats and Daddy started up the car. Auntie Rosalie walked off in an angry sort of way, without waving goodbye. It didn't really matter, I suppose, because I knew I would see her later, but I didn't like it when people didn't say goodbye, even if it was just a quick wave. I got scared that they wouldn't come back, like Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper. I always said goodbye in the evenings before I went to the Little Cottage, and whenever I went anywhere without any person in our family, I always found everybody and said goodbye.

I didn't mention it, though. Talking about Auntie Alice made Momma sad, even more since she disappeared when we went round to Granddad Charlie's last time.

"Did you wrap Charlie's fishing… thing?" Momma asked Daddy.

"It's a fishing sonar system, actually, and the answer is no; Esme offered to do it for us."

"You could've just said yes," Jake said.

"And deprived my darling wife of yet another chance to hear Esme say 'you don't need to thank me, dear'?"

Momma let out a little bit of air in a _huff_ sound which meant she wanted to laugh but was trying not to. "You know me so well," she said to Daddy.

"Mm, I'm beginning to think that I don't mind not hearing your thoughts as much," Daddy said, like he wasn't really concentrating, but I saw him staring at Mom.

Mom turned to look at him and then quickly turned away again. In that second I saw that she was shocked, and then she was suspicious, and then she was sad. Lots of feelings beginning with 's'. I felt the skin of my forehead wrinkle because I was confused. Was Daddy telling Momma something else? Was he lying about not wanting to hear her thoughts? But lying was a bad thing, wasn't it?

Daddy didn't answer any of my questions and my eyebrows scrunched together more. The world was getting more and more confusing.

"Hey, Ness, don't make faces, 'cos if the wind changes you'll never smile again," Jake told me. He was smiling, but I thought he looked a bit confused too. He didn't understand either, then.

I reached out and he leaned over so I could touch his face; I couldn't move closer because of the seatbelt. _How does the wind change?_ I asked him. _Isn't it always just wind? And why won't I smile? Will I be sad or won't my face move?_

He made a little face when I asked my questions and I guessed either he didn't know the answer or he didn't want to have said the thing about the wind in the first place.

"Uh, well, the wind changes direction. That's what I meant. And your face is supposed to get stuck, but it won't really."

I was even more puzzled now.

"It's an old saying," Daddy said. "Parents would tell that to their children to make them behave nicely and stop pulling faces."

So that was another lie that was okay. There were lots of these. Jacob and Auntie Rosalie used them most. Things like "I'll rip your head off" weren't exactly okay, but everybody knew they weren't true so it didn't really matter. Then there were things like "it never stops raining here" which was a special kind of lie called exaggeration. Sometimes people lied to make things easier for themselves. Like whenever anyone asked anyone else "How are you?" everybody always said "fine". That was almost always a lie, or it was where I lived. And there were lots of different ways to lie. You could lie by leaving things out, or lie by making it sound like you meant something else, even if you were actually telling the truth. Sometimes that was okay, and sometimes it wasn't. Usually it was alright if you were joking, but sometimes it was alright if you weren't. People were just really, really confusing.

The car turned left onto Granddad Charlie's road and I stopped thinking about lying. There were some models of reindeer and Santa Claus outside one of the other houses. It was a reminder of Christmas again and my lips quickly curved back into a smile as Daddy stopped the car outside Granddad's house.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Chapter 3! Sorry, life is trying to get me down at the moment. I'm stealing seconds to write this. Anyway, enjoy!

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Mom and Dad got out of the car slowly, like humans, and Mom opened my door to unplug my seatbelt and get me out while Dad got a big present out of the trunk.

"Now, remember you've got to pretend to be human whilst we're there. Okay, sweetie?" Momma reminded me.

"So've you," Jake said. "Got your contacts?"

"Oh gosh, I nearly forgot," she said.

Jake took me out of her arms so he could reach into her pocket and pull out the little white box of contact lenses. I watched, fascinated, as she got out a tiny thin circle of brown plastic and pressed it into her eye. She looked so funny with one brown eye and one bright orange eye, until she put in the other one. She blinked lots of times.

"Ugh, I hate these things," Momma said, twisting her lips and eyebrows into a funny face as she reached out to take me back. "I can't wait until my eyes are finally a halfway acceptable colour."

"You planning to let Charlie see them once they're gold, then?" Jake asked.

"Yes," Momma said immediately. "He can deal with that."

"He was wondering about that, actually," Daddy said. "He was thinking about all the traits that we share and it occurred to him that you were the only one who didn't have the same eye colour. You could probably have gotten away with the red."

Before Momma could answer, Granddad Charlie opened the door. Maybe Daddy had made sure Momma wouldn't have time to answer. She looked a bit annoyed.

"Hey kids, Merry Christmas!" Granddad said. "Merry Christmas, Ness- Renesmee," he said quickly, looking at Momma.

I smiled, and both Jake and Daddy laughed.

"Scary woman, your daughter," said Jake. "There are times when I think she'll bite my head off."

"Very funny, Jacob," said Momma. You could tell she was annoyed because she usually called him Jake. He didn't look worried, though. He never worried about Mom getting angry with him. He said he knew it wouldn't last, because he'd been a real jerk before and she always let him off.

"Merry Christmas, Dad," Momma said, hugging him with one arm. She stopped breathing when she got too close. I had to keep breathing, because I wasn't a proper vampire, but the smell didn't bother me as much.

"Come in, come in," said Granddad. "Sue's here—she's been cooking all morning—with Seth and Leah of course. Sam and Emily are arriving at half past, and Embry and Quil should be arriving soon."

"Mm," said Jake. Quil and Embry must be on patrol. There were always a couple of werewolves patrolling round the town, looking out for the Volturi, but Granddad didn't know about the Volturi or all the guests we had, so we weren't allowed to talk about it in front of him.

We all piled into the house and went into the sitting room. Granddad's house was a lot smaller than our Big House. Momma said it was because our family had a ridiculous amount of money, which meant a lot. I thought it was strange that Momma used to live here too. I couldn't imagine her living in a different place to Daddy and the rest of the family, like her old name, Bella Swan, just didn't sound right to me.

"Hey guys!" said Seth. He was grinning like always. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Seth, Leah," Daddy said politely.

Leah looked at him, but she only nodded. She didn't like any vampires, and I was half-vampire, but she liked me better than the rest of my family. Jake said she liked kids, and she was a bit like Auntie Rosalie, but I couldn't tell either of them that.

I didn't speak because I was pretending to be human, and instead I looked round the room.

The sitting room was even smaller than normal because there was a tree in the corner, next to the television. A Christmas tree, with a gold sparkly star on top and twinkling lights dangling from the branches. There were some small decorations of all different colours and shapes and sizes; I could see a yellow ball, a red star, a miniature green sock and an angel with golden wings, but they were only on the top of the tree for some reason.

Underneath the tree there were lots of the thin green leaves—needles—that had fallen off. Some had turned brown and dry because they had been there for such a long time. I guessed that Granddad Charlie didn't clean very often. There were a few presents, too, and Daddy put Granddad's present with them. Leah leaned away when he walked past her.

Sue came in then, wearing a big white apron. "Hello, Jacob," she said, and then, like she'd just remembered, she said hello to me, Mom and Dad. I don't think Granddad noticed. I waved.

Jake sat down on the floor so Momma could sit on the sofa, next to Seth. Leah gave up the chair so Sue could sit there.

"Hey Bells, Alice hasn't been round for ages. She should've come today; we've got a crowded house already."

"I told you Alice and Jasper went away for a while," said Seth.

"Hasn't she come back for Christmas?" Granddad asked.

Momma looked at Daddy. She didn't know what to say.

"Alice and Jasper have gone to spend Christmas with... some old friends," Daddy said.

"Oh, right. When will they be back?"

"We're not sure," Daddy replied. "We haven't been in contact for a while."

"That's a bit weird, isn't it?" Granddad asked. Momma's hands tightened on me a bit.

"Dad?" she said.

"Yeah, Bells?"

"Need to know," she said quietly. She sounded sad. I put my hand on her cheek to tell her that it was all okay.

"Thanks, darling," she whispered to me. She looked up at Daddy who stroked her hair softly.

Momma and Daddy were very upset about Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper leaving. I knew that they were more upset than they wanted me to know. Everyone was, actually, and I didn't tell them that I knew they were pretending, because that might make them even more upset. Of course, Daddy knew, but I couldn't do much about that. He didn't tell anyone else. It was like a secret that we both had; another lie that was better than telling the truth.

Nobody seemed to know what to say next, so it was a good thing that Quil and Embry knocked on the door then. Well, one of them knocked, but they were both there.

"I'll go," said Jake, and he jumped up. He probably wanted to ask if they had seen anything on patrol.

We all waited for about half a minute, when Quil and Embry told Jake that they hadn't seen or smelt anything, and then they came in. Everybody said 'merry Christmas' again, and Quil asked to see my bracelet. He said—very quietly to me so Granddad wouldn't hear—that he'd had to cover for Jake's patrol lots of times because he'd been busy making my bracelet. Daddy sighed very quietly behind me and I giggled.

The werewolves were all very cheerful, except Leah. She went out into the kitchen to help Sue. Seth said she was a terrible cook, and she yelled back. All the werewolves laughed, and Daddy smiled. Momma tried to, but she was still unhappy. Probably about Auntie Alice.

They all started talking about Jake's dad Billy, and his sister, Rachel, who was a wolf called Paul's imprint. Of course, they didn't say that. They just said it was great that Rachel and Paul had got together.

Got together. That was a strange phrase. I supposed Mom and Dad had had to get together some time, but I couldn't imagine it. They were always together, and it felt like they always had been. And the way Paul felt about Rachel sounded different to the way Jacob felt about me, but I knew he had imprinted on me. There must be different ways to imprint, I decided. I would ask Jake later. After all, he was the one who told me about imprinting. Uncle Emmett said that Jacob had imprinted on me, and I didn't know what that meant, and I knew that Jake never lied to me. Jake said it meant he loved me more than he loved anyone else in the world, even his Dad and his sisters.

I looked up at Daddy, to see what he thought about my thoughts. I could tell by looking at his eyes most times, because most times he was listening to me. He said my thoughts were the best to listen to. Of course, he couldn't hear Momma's. Hers would probably be better. But right now, Daddy was looking at Momma. He looked at her a lot, but he looked a bit worried this time. He kept looking at Granddad and then at Momma. Granddad was looking at Momma as well, and he looked a bit worried too. Maybe more confused than worried.

"Bella, why don't we go and show Renesmee your old room?" Daddy asked, smiling.

I had already seen Mom's old room, but that wasn't really what he was asking. It was another okay lie.

"Alright then," Mom said. She smiled at me and I put my arms round her neck to make it easier for her to pick me up. Jacob looked at Daddy, who nodded. He must have thought something. I wondered what, but decided it probably didn't matter. Everybody was thinking all the time. We all went upstairs and went into Momma's old room.

"Are you alright?" Daddy said when he closed the door.

Momma sat down on the bed, with me on her lap. I'd been on her lap all day, but I liked it and so did she. This was a small bed for a grown-up. All the grown-up beds I had seen were the size of three beds like this one.

"Yes," Momma said, but she wasn't looking at Daddy.

He crouched down in front of her. It was funny, because he was smaller than her now, which was very different to how it normally was.

"Bella, you're still a terrible actress. At least to me."

I giggled, and Momma smiled. That was what I wanted. Daddy smiled at me too.

"I'm sorry, I just keep thinking about Alice. She must love Christmas. I keep thinking about how she would have decorated the house, got a huge tree and seen all her presents."

She was lying. I didn't know why. Daddy knew she was lying, too, but he didn't tell her that.

"Alice always is a nightmare to buy for. As you discovered at graduation."

Momma smiled again, and Daddy smiled at her. He didn't mind that she was lying then. Did he know why she was lying?

"Charlie knows something's wrong," Daddy told her. "At the moment he's trying to decide whether it's just Alice being away or whether it's memories of last Christmas. Right now, he thinks I'm talking to you about how we're going to make this Christmas better. I'm afraid you're going to have to pretend to be a bit more cheerful, love," he said quietly.

"You just said I was a terrible actress," Momma said, but she was smiling. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a smile.

"And you're the only person who ever proves me wrong," Daddy said, happy because she was smiling. He leant forward and kissed her, over the top of my head. I waited for them to stop. Kissing was very boring, I thought.

"Alright then," Momma said, when they finally stopped, pretending to be annoyed. "Challenge accepted. You know, it's weird to be back in this room with you, and you," she said, pressing my nose with one finger. "On one hand, it's like nothing's changed, and on the other, it's a lifetime away."

"Well it feels very different to me," Daddy said. "The window's locked."

Momma laughed, and me and Daddy both smiled a lot. I giggled again.

"What do you think of your Mom's old room then?" Daddy asked me.

I looked around again. It was very small, with sad coloured walls and curtains that were supposed to be white and had gone yellow now. There were no books on the shelf and no pictures on the desk. I liked the rocking chair though. Momma had sat with me there before, rocking back and forward.

"Mm, I like that rocking chair, too," Daddy said. "I used to sit there and watch your Momma sleep. I think we should get one for the cottage."

I reached up to press my hand to Momma's neck and show her my room at home with the rocking chair in it.

"That's decided then. It can be a late Christmas present," Momma told me. I grinned.

Daddy looked up, then. "Sam and Emily are nearly here," he said.

"We'd better go down and meet them, then," Momma said. "I'll be cheerful now, I promise."

The doorbell rang, and we all went downstairs again. I'd never seen Sam and Emily before. I knew Sam was the Alpha of the other werewolf pack and Emily was going to marry him. Both of them knew about vampires, so I didn't have to pretend much for them. They knew lots about me because Jacob told Sam when they were both wolves. So I was curious when Granddad opened the door. Mom, Dad and me were at the bottom of the stairs and I twisted round to see properly as everyone started saying 'merry Christmas' again.

Sam looked nice. He was smiling even though there were vampires here, and he had skin like Jacob's and Seth's. It was very different to everyone else's at home, all brown and red. Even Granddad's skin was more pink than brown. I didn't look much at Sam though.

Half of Emily was pretty and half of her wasn't. She had three long lines down her face and neck which looked like ropes pulling her face in weird directions. It looked like she'd been hurt, but it didn't hurt any more. Like Uncle Jasper and all his scars. These were scars too, I thought, but they were red instead of white. Human scars. I followed the lines down her neck, and saw that they ended on her hand. That must have hurt a lot. How did she get them?

Momma whispered in my ear, "Don't stare, darling, it's rude. She's alright now, and she's a lovely person."

I looked at her and nodded. Staring was rude, I could remember that. But Emily was staring at me. That wasn't fair.

"Merry Christmas, Sam, Emily," Daddy was saying. "And you haven't met our daughter before. This is Renesmee."

I waved at them. Emily waved back, smiling half a smile. I decided I liked Emily. She didn't mind if I was a half vampire. I touched Momma's neck to ask if I could go to Emily. Momma liked to hold me when there were humans around, just in case, but she really was okay on her own now.

"Do you want to hold her?" Momma said to Emily, smiling quickly at me. Emily looked at Sam first, and she looked a bit worried.

Daddy laughed. "It's okay, she won't bite."

I knew I couldn't bite humans. I didn't even bite Jacob much any more. I did it a lot when I was littler, but I was a bit bored of it now.

"She's not venomous, either," Momma said, very quietly so the werewolves and the vampires and I could hear, but the humans couldn't. "She's very used to humans. And I promise I'm under control. If it makes you feel better, I won't breathe when I'm close to her."

I saw Sam whisper something in Emily's ear, probably telling her what Momma had told him.

"Okay," said Emily. She had a pretty voice, too. I really liked Emily.

I reached out for her, and Momma moved to put me in her arms. She stopped breathing when she got close, just in case. Momma got thirsty a lot easier than I did, but we all went hunting yesterday, so she was alright.

Emily was very warm, like Granddad Charlie, but she wasn't as warm as Jacob or Seth, and she wasn't as warm as me. I didn't mind, because most people weren't as warm as me. She carried me back through to the living room, and everyone started talking again. It was like a normal day at home, except there was no fighting practice and there was a tree inside and there were lots of werewolves here. I changed my mind. It wasn't like a normal day at home at all.

* * *

A/N: I said last time that this fic would be three or four chapters long. We're now looking at four or five. Hopefully four, or I run the risk of becoming very boring.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Let's see if I can keep these chapters coming a bit thicker and faster. Personally, I doubt it.

* * *

"Right, now everyone's here, shall we do presents?" Granddad said.

I grinned with delight. More presents. Maybe it was a bit silly that I liked things given to me with shiny paper and for a reason, but it felt different. Special.

"Oh, you like presents, do you?" Emily said. She sounded like she was trying not to laugh. I nodded happily.

"She's already been thoroughly spoiled by our family this morning," said Daddy. "Her entire outfit is new."

We all went back into the living room. Emily sat down on the floor with me, next to the tree. There really weren't enough chairs. Granddad and Sue got the sofa, and Sam got the chair. Momma and Daddy stood by the door, and Momma's head lay on Daddy's shoulder. Leah stood as far away from them as she could, and Embry and Quil did too. They weren't used to the smell of vampires. Seth and Jake sat on the floor with me and Emily.

"Jake, why don't you be Santa?" Momma asked.

"Sure," he said, and reached for the first present. "This one's for Bella," he said loudly, and leaned over to give it to her. He didn't have to stand up to reach.

"Thanks," Mom said, and looked at the piece of paper that had been stuck on. "Aw, Dad, you really shouldn't have."

Granddad looked like she had upset him. "You're my daughter, Bells, of course I'm going to give you a present," he said.

Momma smiled and took off the wrapping paper, which was a bit wrinkly, like Granddad's forehead, and a bright red colour, with pictures of Christmas trees on it. She did it like me, taking off the sticky tape and not ripping the paper. Underneath, there were two CDs. Daddy had both of them in his room in the Big House.

"Is that the new album?" Momma asked, pretending she didn't know.

"Yeah, you do like Linkin Park, right?" asked Granddad.

"Of course I do. Do you remember Phil lent me that other CD when I first came here? And Paramore, I think I've heard their single."

I didn't like Paramore. Their songs were too loud and there was too much drums. I hoped Daddy hadn't put them on my music player. I looked up at him and he winked quickly. Good.

"Thanks, Dad," said Momma, and she leant forwards over the sofa to hug him. She didn't breathe. Emily looked shocked.

"Next one," Jake said. "And it's for Charlie." He twisted round to give Granddad a present, but it wasn't the one Daddy had put under the tree. Granddad opened the present; he just ripped the paper, not taking it off properly.

"Excellent, I was running out of bait!" he said. "Thanks… uh, who was that from?"

"Me," said Sue. She smiled a bit. "I think you ripped the label off."

"Oh," Granddad said. "Thanks, Sue."

They smiled at each other. Sue and Granddad were very good friends. Sue always used to come with Granddad to the Big House to visit. She was here sometimes when we visited him as well. I didn't like Sue as much as Granddad. She didn't like vampires much.

"And now we have one for… actually, I can't read that," said Jake. He held up a present wrapped in blue tissue paper with a pink curly ribbon tied round it. "Any clues, Charlie?"

"That's for Bella and Edward," said Granddad.

"From Mom, if the handwriting's anything to go by," Momma said, laughing. She stopped a bit too quickly.

It was a bit confusing, Granddad being Momma's Dad. I didn't know her Mom though. I knew her name was Renée, like the first bit of my name, and I knew she lived in a place called Jacksonville where it was always sunny.

Jake gave the present to Momma, who gave it to Daddy and said, "First present from the in-laws. You do the honours."

"You know, your mother's handwriting is worse than yours," Daddy said quietly, smiling as he untied the pink ribbon. He folded the fluffy tissue paper back neatly and underneath was a cardboard box. It had a piece of paper stuck to the top, and Momma leant over to read it.

"'Every newlywed couple needs a toaster. Here's yours, love Mom and Phil.' Useful," Mom said to Daddy.

Seth, Embry, Quil, Jacob and Mom all started laughing (she was laughing properly this time). Daddy chuckled a bit, Emily giggled and Sue, Leah and Sam smiled. Granddad looked a bit confused. That made Jake laugh more, and I started giggling because he looked so funny, laughing. Little drops of water started leaking from his eyes, but he wasn't crying, because he wasn't sad. That was a bit funny, too.

"Moving on," Jake said, once his eyes stopped leaking. He wiped away the water with one hand and picked up another present with the other. "For Sue from Charlie."

It was a big parcel, wrapped in the same red paper with Christmas trees on it. Jake didn't even have to lean to give this one to Sue. She unwrapped it slowly, but she still ripped the paper like Granddad did.

"Now that is useful," she said. "Thanks, Charlie."

"No problem," Granddad said, and his voice was a bit low. He sounded odd.

"What is it, Mom?" Seth asked. He couldn't see because Jake was in the way.

"New set of saucepans," Sue told him. "We've been severely lacking since you broke the handle off the last frying pan."

"Hey, that was Leah! She threw it at me!" Seth said.

Leah lifted one eyebrow up. I would have to learn how to do that.

"And moving on again before we have to break up another Clearwater brawl, one for Nessie," said Jake. "From your Granddad."

I grinned happily as he gave it to me. My head leant to the side as I turned it over in my hands, feeling it. It was soft and floppy.

"Do you want a hand?" Emily asked me.

I shook my head. Why did she ask that? Quickly, I lifted off the sticky tape from the red paper and unfolded it. Underneath, there was a toy bear. It was the colour of a pine trunk, dark and shadowy, with a patch that was almost white on its tummy. It had almost-white paws as well. That was silly: bears walked in the mud on their paws. And their paws were usually black, anyway. The toy's eyes were bright black, shiny and hard, and there was a little sparkle in the corner. It was smiling, even though bears don't smile.

"Aw, Nessie, isn't that cute?" Jake asked.

I nodded, but I wasn't sure. It was a bit strange, like it was pretending to be a real bear, but it wasn't. It was lying.

"Thank you, Granddad," I said, remembering what Momma had said this morning: _'Nothing wrong with making manners a habit.'_

Emily looked surprised, I saw. She didn't think I could talk. Or she didn't know that I talked like I did. I didn't know which. It was like when I first met Carmen and the other Denali vampires. They were surprised when I talked as well.

"No problem, sweetie," Granddad said. "Your Mom said you didn't have a teddy bear yet, and every little girl needs something furry to cuddle at night, right?"

It was strange when Granddad said 'your Mom'. He didn't need to. He called Momma by her first name, Bella, and I knew that she was called Bella. Mom and Momma were special names that only I could call her because she was my mom.

I was so busy thinking about this that I almost didn't notice Embry laughing behind his hand.

"And the last present is for Charlie," Jake said. He said it quickly, and a bit angrily, and he glared at Embry a little. I really didn't understand grown-ups.

"Thanks, Jake," Granddad said, taking the present that we had brought. "And thanks, Bella, Edward."

"No problem, Dad," Momma said.

He ripped the paper off. That was a shame. It was the pretty gold and silver paper. "Humminbird 931C sonar system!" he read out, and his voice went higher at the end, like he was asking a question. I knew it was because he was excited though. "With GPS receiver! Wow, guys, this is brilliant!"

"Don't mention it," Momma said.

Granddad was already opening the box. It had lots and lots of tissue paper and plastic sheets with little bubbles and white shapes to hold the thing—whatever it was—in place. The box was quite big, but the thing, when he pulled it out after a long time trying to get it, was quite small. It was a bit bigger than a normal sized book. Granddad did actually pull out a book, too, but it didn't have a cover.

"Whew," he said. "That's one heck of an instruction manual." Then he started to read.

"And… we've lost him," Jake said.

Momma giggled. "It's so strange to see him reading."

"I heard that," said Granddad, mumbling. "WeatherSense barometric pressure…"

"It's alright for you," Sue said. "You don't have to cook all the fish he brings home any more."

"Or smell it," Momma agreed.

Sue frowned. "And speaking of cooking, I'm going to check on the red cabbage," she said.

"I'll come," Leah said. I think they both wanted to get away from Mom and Dad.

I picked up the teddy bear from my lap to look at it again. It _was _quite soft and cuddly. I thought that maybe I did like it, actually. After all, I was pretending to be human today so this toy could pretend to be real. And it wasn't alive so it didn't mean to lie.

Emily was watching me. "I didn't realise she could talk so well," she said. "Her voice is just like a child already at school."

Momma moved forward to talk to her a bit quieter. She stayed away though, looking at Sam quickly. "She's actually fluent. And she likes to read Tennyson."

Emily's mouth hung open. I giggled.

"You know, you sound like a typical boasting mom in the playground," Quil said.

"You can hardly blame her," Jake said, stroking one of my plaits.

Daddy smiled. "Nor can we blame you for doing a far more efficient job of extolling her virtues at every opportunity."

"And we've all heard the way _you_ talk about Claire," Embry added. He'd moved back a bit when Momma moved forward, and his nose was wrinkled. This room really was very small.

Emily was ignoring them. "Why don't you talk much then?" she asked me.

I looked at Daddy. I couldn't say I was pretending to be human because then it would be obvious that I wasn't human. He nodded.

"Charlie is not quite as aware as you are of her mental development. Therefore, we tell her to pretend to be human when she comes round here."

"Edward!" Momma said, looking round at him.

"He's not listening to a word we're saying, love, don't worry," Daddy told her.

Good. Granddad was the only person here who didn't properly know about vampires. I looked at Daddy and asked him in my head if I could talk to Emily properly, like I talked to everyone else. I liked Emily.

"I'll just ask," he told me, smiling. "Are you aware of Renesmee's particular… talent?" he asked Emily, and Sam.

"Yes," said Sam. "Though of course I can't experience it through Jacob's thoughts any more."

"I know in theory," Emily said. "I can't say I really understand it, though."

"Well," Daddy said. He sounded careful. "Renesmee was wondering if she could show it to you."

Sam frowned a bit. Usually his face stayed exactly the same, very calm. Sometimes he smiled, but it was the first time he had frowned today. That was good. Only one frown in the whole time I had seen him; he must not be a very sad person.

"Sure," said Emily.

"Emily…" said Sam, and he sounded a bit worried.

"Sam, it's fine. I mean, Edward uses his gift on us all the time, doesn't he? That's never done anyone any harm. And do you honestly think she'd try to hurt anyone, anyway?"

"Give her a bit of credit," said Jake. "She's been doing it since about two minutes after her birth, and no one's gone mad yet."

"Works fine on me, too," Seth said.

Sam still looked worried.

"There's been no mental gift ever recorded that has affected humans differently to… us," Daddy said.

Momma watched everything quietly, and her eyes went back and forward between Sam and Emily and Daddy and me. I smiled at her.

"Alright," Sam said.

I grinned, and reached out towards Emily's face. Like I had done for Carmen, I let her come closer to me, and I didn't actually touch her, I let her touch me. When she did, I started to show her the presents I got this morning. She let out a lot of air in one breath at the beginning, because she was surprised, but she didn't move away. I showed her my Bible and my photograph album and my hair clip and my music player first, because she hadn't seen them before, and then I showed her my dress and my shoes and my cardigan before I put them on, folded all nice and neat, and then I showed her my locket and my music player and my bracelet.

When I pulled my hand away, she blinked a couple of times. "Wow," she said, and her voice had lots of air in it.

"Quite a lot to get used to, isn't it?" Daddy said.

"What did she show you?" Momma asked.

"Her Christmas presents," Emily said. "Can I see your bracelet?" she asked me.

I pulled up the sleeve of my cardigan, so she could see it, and then tugged the sleeve back down again so the bracelet was on top. It looked silly with one sleeve longer than the other.

Emily held out her left hand. On the finger next to her little one was a ring like my bracelet, only smaller, of course. Hers wasn't brown and red, either, it was blue and green. Like leaves and the sky and grass and the river and moss.

"Sam gave that one to me," she said, and she smiled at him. He smiled back. They loved each other so much, just like Mom and Dad.

"Alright, lunch is ready," Sue said, coming back into the room.

Granddad looked up. "Oh, brilliant. Thanks, Sue."

"Amazing how any mention of food can make you look up," Momma said, laughing a little bit.

"Or the sound of Mom's voice," Seth said very quietly to Jake. I don't think Momma heard.

* * *

A/N: The fishing sonar system I gave Charlie can be found here .?item=HUM4061901&id=HUM4061901&l=NEXTAG, if you're interested (I bet you're not), except the one on the website is without the GPS… whatsit. Paramore fans, I'll quickly reassure you that I love them (as much as I can only knowing two songs) but I just thought Nessie wouldn't be so keen. Linkin Park fans, I know the latest album is actually from 2007, but the date of Twilight has never been properly set, so that doesn't matter.

This story keeps getting longer and longer. I was going to do lunch in here as well, but then presents took longer than I thought, and… oh never mind. You're not complaining… are you?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: It's been a while in coming, but I sat down tonight to write another hundred words or so, and wrote about seven times that. Alors, voilà!

* * *

"Will Nessie be eating Christmas dinner with us?" Emily asked Momma, smiling at me so I knew she wasn't ignoring me. I didn't mind.

Momma made a funny face. "Is there no one who uses her full name except me?" she muttered. I grinned and so did Jake. "Yes, she's old enough to eat dinner with us now, aren't you sweetie?" she asked.

I really, really didn't want to eat the human food. It was all horrid and yucky. I hadn't tasted much of it, but the baby food was disgusting, and so was the cold meat that Granddad Carlisle thought I might like because it was an animal. I definitely liked drinking blood better, even if it was icky animal blood. But Momma obviously wanted me to try to eat it.

The kitchen looked very full. There was a big table, which was actually two tables squashed together, with a big white cloth on the top. There were lots of knives and forks all set out in straight lines, pointing to the middle of the table, and there were lots of different saucepans and pots and things on the cooker. Sue was getting everything out of the bright yellow cupboards, lots of plates and big dishes for the food. I liked the cupboards. Momma told me that her Momma had painted them a long time ago.

Everybody sat down in all the different types of chairs that looked like they had come from lots of different houses. Someone had put a taller chair by the table in the kitchen for me to sit on and Emily put me down in the tall chair. She sat down on my left, next to Sam, and Momma sat on my other side, and Daddy sat down next to her.

Momma leaned over to Daddy, and whispered to him. "Do we have to eat this?"

He shook his head. "Sue hasn't cooked enough for us, thank goodness. When Emmett gets round to daring you to eat human food, don't."

I put my hand on Momma's to tell her that it wasn't fair. She didn't have to eat human food but I did!

"You don't have to eat much at all," Momma said quietly, laughing a bit. "Just try a few things, okay? You never know, you might find something you like."

I didn't think I would.

Sue and Leah started giving out plates, and I was glad that my one was a lot smaller that everyone else's. When they didn't give Mom and Dad plates, Granddad Charlie looked confused.

"Aren't you guys going to eat anything?" he said.

"Uh, no," Momma said, looking at Daddy to get him to come up with a reason. Momma was the worst at pretending to be human. She wasn't very good at pretending anything, really.

"Esme's cooking us a Christmas dinner tonight," Daddy said. "And Bella can only eat very specific things at the moment, because of her illness."

Jake rolled his eyes round in a circle, but Granddad didn't see him.

"I thought you were better now?" he asked Momma.

"I am," she said. "It's just that it would be better to avoid various foods at the moment. Helps my immune system," she added.

Jake _and _Seth rolled their eyes this time.

"What about you, Edward?" Granddad asked him.

"I'll keep Bella company," Daddy said smoothly. "I told Seth to let Sue know that she needn't cater for either of us."

"Yes, I've only cooked for nine, plus a bit more for Renesmee," Sue said, carrying a huge cooked bird over to the table. A turkey. It might have been bigger than me. "Your oven wouldn't have coped with much more."

"Oh," said Granddad. "Okay, then."

Then Sue and Leah started serving up food. Emily offered to help, but Sue said no, because Emily always fed all the boys and she should give herself a rest every now and then, and it was the least Sue could do to take the weight off her shoulders. After that, Sue got Seth to help, because he never did anything round the house and what he going to be like as a husband one day, she just didn't know, and she did pity his poor wife sometimes. Embry, Quil, Seth and Jake all had heaps on their plates. Leah had a lot less, even though she was a werewolf too. I didn't know why. They gave me a little bit of everything, a little pool of gravy, a little slice of turkey, a little piece of carrot, a little tree of broccoli, a little pile of red cabbage and a little heap of cranberry sauce. I made a face.

"Just try a little," Daddy said. "It can't hurt."

It probably could. It would hurt my tongue because it would taste horrid and my mouth would never be the same again.

Daddy laughed at me. That wasn't very nice.

"Go on," said Emily, and she was smiling. Oh alright then. I liked Emily. I'd try a little bit and then I would tell them that I didn't like it and that would be it.

I had seen Jake eating with a fork before, so I picked my one up. It was different to everyone else's: smaller and made of plastic, not shiny metal. I wondered why. I hadn't ever used a fork, but it looked easy enough, so I stabbed a bit of carrot. I hit the plate a bit hard, and it banged noisily, so I looked up to see if anyone noticed. No one did. Everybody was talking even louder than my plate had banged. It was a lot noisier here than it was at the Big House, even though there were more people at the House. Probably it was because the humans couldn't hear as easily as everybody else could, so everyone talked louder to let them hear.

I put the carrot in my mouth, and pulled it off with my teeth. It was strange, chewing things. Usually I just swallowed, because you couldn't chew blood. The carrot was quite crunchy and I think it would have hurt if I had just swallowed it without chewing. It was wet, though, which was good. It felt just a little bit like blood if it was wet. But it tasted really yucky. I swallowed it quickly so I didn't have to have it in my mouth any more.

"Didn't like that, huh?" Emily said.

I shook my head.

"You're such a fussy eater, Nessie," Jake said. He was grinning and he winked at me fast, turning so the humans probably didn't see it. I grinned back at him.

"What are you going to try next?" Mom asked. She was watching me really closely. I remembered that Mom used to eat food before I was born. Was it like this when she was trying blood for the first time?

I decided to try the gravy, because if it was horrid I could just swallow it. I put my fork in the little pool so it was covered in it, and then licked it off. The gravy was strange, because it was hot like blood and wet like blood, but it was watery and it didn't taste right. I didn't like that. I swallowed the gravy quickly, too.

"You don't like gravy?" Jake asked. He looked a bit shocked, but I think he was joking.

I shook my head again.

After that, I tried the red cabbage, because it was red, but that was icky too. And then the broccoli because it looked like a tree, but that tasted worse than the carrot. I ignored the turkey, because I didn't like eating animals without blood. Then I tried the cranberry sauce. And smiled.

"You like it?" Momma said, and she really was shocked.

I nodded enthusiastically. I didn't know what it tasted like, because I didn't know what words were right. I didn't know what sweet meant, or sharp, or sour, or savoury, but maybe I could get Jake or Mom to tell me later. I just really liked it. I scooped up another forkful. I really liked cranberry sauce.

"Guess she's got a sweet tooth," Granddad Charlie was saying to Daddy.

"Indeed she has," Daddy said. Leah made a face across the table, and Sam looked at Daddy funnily.

I wasn't really listening. I was thinking about how eating the cranberry sauce made me feel less thirsty. That was odd. You had to drink to be less thirsty. Even with humans, I thought. But I was eating the cranberry sauce, and I was getting less thirsty. So I didn't have to drink blood all the time. I could eat instead. Maybe that would be useful one day.

Emily kept giving me more cranberry sauce when Granddad wasn't looking. I really, really liked Emily.

Soon everybody finished all their food. Embry finished first, even though he had the most food. All the werewolves finished very quickly, and Quil and Embry and Jake had more after they finished, too. That was silly; it tasted all horrible apart from the cranberry sauce.

Momma and Emily cleared up the plates, and Sue got the pudding ready. It was boring, waiting for the pudding. Everybody else was talking, but there was no one sitting next to me any more so I couldn't talk to anyone. It was probably rude to go away though, and it would be even more boring in the sitting room all by myself. I liked being with people. I liked talking to people. I didn't like pretending to be human.

Daddy, Jake and Seth were talking about cars. Jake liked cars a lot; he had built one all by himself. And he built two motorbikes for him and Mom. I thought that was very clever, but Auntie Rosalie said it wasn't clever at all since those motorbikes looked like they'd fall apart at any second, and anyway, she would have done a better job. It sounded like Seth didn't know a lot about cars; he kept getting the names of them mixed up. Then Jake and Daddy started talking about engines, and Seth just looked confused. He turned round to talk to Embry and Quil.

Embry and Quil were talking about a chick at school who kept following Embry around. I didn't know there were birds at schools. I thought there were only people at schools. I'd ask Seth later, because he still went to school.

Sue and Granddad were talking about one of Sue's cousins. That was very boring.

Momma and Emily were talking about me. Emily was saying I was unbelievably adorable. Mom was asking if Emily was planning on a family of her own. That would be nice, I thought. I could be friends with Emily's children. If they liked vampires, of course.

Finally, the oven made a really loud pinging noise, and Sue got up again to get the pudding out. It looked like a little brown hill. Momma went and sat down quickly when Sue got a bottle of liquid out of another yellow cupboard, and poured it on the pudding. I wondered why, and then Sue took out a box of matches and set the pudding on fire! It was already cooked, why was it set on fire? And fire was bad. Vampires caught fire easily. Fire could kill someone! I grabbed Momma's hand.

"It's okay," she whispered. "The fire won't spread anywhere else. It's just to make it look pretty."

When Sue put it on the table, the fire covering it like a dress that kept moving in the wind, Granddad clapped, and then Embry, Jake and Sam joined in.

I didn't understand grown-ups. Especially human ones.


	6. Chapter 6

I didn't eat any of the pudding. It looked like mud, and the fire scared me. Even when it was gone, I thought it might come back, so I didn't try. Anyway, I'd eaten lots of cranberry sauce, so I didn't need to eat anything else. Or drink anything else. I just sat, watching everyone else, like Mom and Dad did. I saw that Mom looked a bit sad again, and she was looking at everyone's faces, one after another after another after another. When she looked at me, and saw that I was looking at her, she smiled at me. I was going to touch her hand and ask her what was wrong, but Momma was sad quite a lot of the time at the moment, and she never told me why, so I didn't ask.

After a long time, everybody finished eating. Finally! Momma, Emily and Leah started doing the dishes again, and Emily convinced Sue to sit down and relax because she'd done so much work that day, feeding everyone so beautifully and she deserved a sit down. Sue looked happy when she said that, and her and Granddad went out into the lounge again. Embry, Quil, and Seth went too, but Daddy and Jake stayed, so I didn't want to go either.

Sam went over to Emily. "Will you be alright on your own?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes around. Lots of people did that; I liked it. I would have to try that. "Of course. I'm sure Jake and Leah will protect me."

Sam smiled. "I'm sorry," he said to Mom and Dad.

"No problem," said Mom. "I remember the days when Edward used to forbid me from going to La Push for my own safety."

"To be fair, you did come back with a broken hand on one occasion," Daddy pointed out.

"_She_ punched _me_," Jake said quickly.

Emily laughed, and Sam kissed her cheek where the red lines were and then went out.

Momma had only attacked Jacob once that I had seen. I didn't know she had done it before. Lots had happened before I was born. I felt left out sometimes.

"Hey, Bella, remember the time when you were washing up with me?" Jake asked.

"How could I forget?" Momma said. "Edward accused me of stabbing you."

"I was very disappointed to hear the truth," Daddy told Jake.

Jake laughed, but Leah put down the dish she was washing, rubbed her hands on a little towel and followed Sam out to the sitting room. I don't think she liked the idea of somebody stabbing Jacob. I didn't either, but I knew Momma wouldn't stab Jacob because she wouldn't like to smell his blood. I didn't know why Daddy wanted Momma to stab Jacob.

"I don't any more," Daddy said.

"What?" Jake asked.

"Renesmee was wondering why I wanted to stab you," Daddy told him.

Jake nodded. Emily blinked three times very quickly. "I keep forgetting you can…" she said. She didn't want Granddad to hear her.

"I apologise for the invasion of your privacy," Daddy said to her. He liked to use long words a lot. "I try not to listen, but unfortunately I can't help hearing. It can come in useful, though."

_Why did you want Momma to stab Jake? _I asked Daddy. I thought it very very loudly so he had to answer.

He came over and picked me up out of my chair. "I wanted someone to stab him because, hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when Jacob and I absolutely loathed and detested each other."

Jake laughed. "Who says I still don't loathe and detest you?" he said, trying to sound like Daddy.

"Who says I'm not putting up with you for my daughter's sake?" Daddy said.

Momma sighed. "Boys," she said, smiling at Emily.

_Why did you used to loathe and detest each other?_

"Because Jacob used to be very immature and aggressive," Daddy told me.

"And your daddy was very arrogant and possessive. No, wait, he still is."

"What time is it?" Momma asked. She was bored of Jake and Daddy teasing each other.

Emily checked a little silver watch she was wearing. It was very pretty. "Ten to three," she said.

Daddy went over to her, carrying me. "We can leave soon, if you want to. Charlie's dying to read the rest of his sonar manual."

Momma bit her lip a bit. I didn't know why she did that. Why would anybody want to eat themselves? "Would that be alright, Jake?"

"Sure, sure," he said. He said that a lot. "I talk to most of them every day—it's not as if I'm missing out on the gossip."

"What about you, sweetie?" Momma asked me.

I put my hand on her cheek to tell her that I didn't mind leaving now. I liked Emily a lot but I liked everyone at home too. And I wanted to show Emmett my toy bear. Emmett liked bears a lot.

"We'll have to hunt anyway," Daddy said, very quietly.

"Okay. Just let me finish up here, then we'll go," Momma said.

"I can manage, Bella," Emily said.

Momma smiled at her, but it was another sad smile. "I'd like to help. I don't know-"

She stopped talking, suddenly, and shook her head a bit. I thought Daddy or Jacob would say that it would all be fine, because it was obvious that Momma was worrying, but they didn't. I don't think they wanted to lie. Some lies weren't okay. Even if they didn't know if it would be a lie.

I was worried, a bit, because Momma was worried. I didn't know exactly what was going on, because I didn't ask. It was a grown-up thing. I used to think that it was all my fault, but I knew it wasn't, because everyone told me it wasn't. I didn't know whose fault it was, or if it was anyone's fault. All I knew was that there were lots of people who had come to protect us. Like the werewolves, who were the Protectors. They were protecting us from the Volturi. I didn't know much about the Volturi. I knew they lived in Italy. Italy was a place a long, long way away, and that's why they weren't here yet. They were vampires, like most of the people that I knew. Eleazar, Carmen's mate, used to stay with the Volturi, but then he went with Carmen. Eleazar said when I met him that the Volturi might want Daddy and Momma to join them. I knew that the Volturi didn't know what I was, so they were scared of me, like lots of our guests used to be scared of me. I knew that there might be a fight, and I knew that no one wanted a fight. I didn't want a fight. The werewolves liked to fight, and Emmett liked to fight, and so did Garrett, but they didn't want this fight. This fight was dangerous. Too dangerous. It wasn't like hunting, because the Volturi were vampires too, and they were as strong and fast as us, not like deer and things. And they had gifts, like Momma and Daddy and Zafrina and Benjamin.

I didn't like to think about all the problems. I let the grown-ups think about the problems.

"That's right," Daddy said, and he smiled at me. I smiled back, but I was still a bit worried.

"Let's go and pick up your bear from the sitting room," he said.

I nodded, and he carried me out to the sitting room. Nobody was moving much in here. Granddad and Sue were on the sofa, and Sam was sitting in the chair, like before. Leah was leaning against the door frame, but she moved away when me and Daddy came in. Embry, Seth and Quil were sitting on the floor, watching the television. Embry and Quil wrinkled their noses when they smelled Daddy, at exactly the same time. It was funny. I stopped being worried, then.

"We're going to be leaving in a minute, I'm afraid, Charlie," Daddy said.

Granddad didn't move. He was reading the book that was in the box with his present. The fishing thing. Sue nudged him with her elbow and he looked up fast.

"Sorry, missed that," he said. "Uh, what did you say?"

"I said that Bella, Renesmee, Jacob and I will be leaving in a minute," Daddy said again.

"Oh," Granddad said. "Shame. Can't you stay longer?"

"I'm afraid not," Daddy told him. That was a silly thing to say. He wasn't scared. Afraid meant the same as scared, didn't it? "Esme will be waiting for us."

"Right, sure," Granddad said.

Daddy moved round behind the sofa to get to the Christmas tree, where I'd left my bear, because that meant Embry and Quil didn't have to smell him as much. He crouched down so I could pick up the bear. It really was very soft. I decided that I definitely liked the bear. Daddy put Momma's CDs on top of the box with the toaster and he picked them up with the hand that wasn't carrying me.

We went back into the kitchen then, to go and see Mom again. She had nearly finished doing the washing up now.

"Thanks," she said when she saw Daddy had brought in her CDs.

"My pleasure," he said, and kissed her cheek. Momma relaxed a bit then. She always relaxed a bit when Daddy was there.

Momma put down a plate. It was the last one. "Shall we go then?" she said.

"Sure, sure," Jake said. He hopped off the table (I don't know why he was sitting on the table. Chairs were for sitting on. Not tables) and went towards the sitting room.

"I hope I'll see you again, sometime," Emily said, smiling.

"You too," Momma said.

I reached out and Daddy brought me a bit closer so I could touch her cheek and tell her that I liked her and I wanted to see her again as well.

"We'll have to make a date," she smiled. She smiled a lot.

Then we all went out into the sitting room.

"We're off now, Dad," Momma said to Granddad.

Sue nudged him again, because he was still reading. Couldn't humans hear when they were reading? I could.

"Sorry, what? Oh, Bella! Are you off then?"

Sue laughed, and Momma smiled. "That's what I just said."

"Oh, okay then," Granddad said, and he got up from the sofa to come and hug her. "Say hi to Esme and Carlisle for me."

"Will do," Momma said. She wasn't breathing. I had to breathe all the time, because I wasn't a whole vampire, but I didn't get as thirsty as Momma. And I had eaten the cranberry sauce.

"See you, Edward," Granddad said. He didn't hug Daddy, he just shook his hand. Usually, men didn't hug men. I didn't know why. Women hugged everyone. Maybe there were rules if you were a man. I was glad I was a girl.

"Thank you for having us," Daddy said.

"And thanks for lunch, Sue," Momma said. "Even if my daughter is a very fussy eater."

Jake laughed. "Well, I enjoyed it!"

"I noticed," Sue said. "You're all welcome."

"See you, guys," Jake said to Embry, Quil, Seth, Leah and Sam.

Leah smiled a bit (she never smiled. She looked pretty when she smiled. She should smile more). Embry and Quil nodded. Seth grinned. I think he was on patrol that night.

"I'll speak to you soon," Sam said.

"Sure, sure," Jake agreed.

"Maybe we could meet up again for New Year's," Granddad said. "You never know, we might have snow on New Year's Eve. Shame we didn't get the white Christmas, eh?"

"Yes," Daddy said.

Momma looked frozen. Like a snowflake. Snow was frozen water, wasn't it? And snow was white, and so was Momma. She stopped looking like a snowflake quickly though. Snowflakes melted quickly.

"We'll see what's going on." She smiled at Granddad. It was another pretend smile, but I don't think Granddad noticed. Granddad didn't notice much. "Merry Christmas everyone," she said.

Almost everybody said "Merry Christmas" back. Leah didn't. She wasn't smiling any more. That was sad. After that, we went outside again. I waved at everybody. Seth, Emily and Granddad waved back. Sam smiled. Embry and Quil were watching the television again. We went out to the car. It definitely wasn't snowing now; it was raining, but it was raining in such tiny tiny drops that it was like the water was flying, not falling. I wished I could fly, like the birds that Grandma Esme loved. Momma took me from Daddy so he could drive. She was going to put me in the back again, but I put my hand on her cheek and told her that I wanted to stay with her. I thought she looked sad, so she shouldn't be on her own. She smiled (properly) and I sat on her lap. Daddy and Jake got in, then Daddy turned the key and we started going back home.

Nobody said anything on the way home. It was like everybody was tired. I pulled my locket from under my cardigan and started opening and closing it, practising because it was tricky. Maybe if my fingers grew more, I wouldn't be able to open it properly. But Momma had put the picture in before she gave it to me, hadn't she? And her fingers were bigger than mine. If I practised, I would probably still be able to do it when I grew up.

* * *

A/N: _If_ you grow up, little Nessie.

I predict that this story will have three more chapters.

*thinks back to the time a few chapters ago when she was sure it would be finished by now*

But don't trust me.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I apologise for my lengthy absence, but as I've explained on my profile, I'm currently banned from writing and from . My parents have gone to bed now, which is why I can update. I can only write when they're out the house. Sorry.

Lots and lots and lots of dialogue taken from Breaking Dawn! It does not belong to me.

* * *

When we got home, Jake and Momma and Daddy all looked a bit worried. I didn't know why for a minute, but then I listened and I heard some people talking inside, and they sounded angry. Granddad Carlisle was talking too, but he was never angry. Daddy didn't drive the car into the garage; he just stopped it in front of the house. Momma picked me up and I put my locket back on, and we all went inside very quickly, without even picking up our Christmas presents.

"Alistair is gone," Daddy said before we got to the door.

I didn't know Alistair very well. He didn't like people, not vampires or werewolves or humans, so he stayed upstairs a lot. I only ever spoke to him my way once, when he got here. He was very scared when he saw me; he jumped in the air and tried to run away, but everybody ran after him to explain and Daddy was much faster than him so he could talk to him, so he came back. Then I showed him all about me and my family and the werewolves, but he didn't like people touching him, so I had to do it quickly. After that, Granddad Carlisle talked to him for a bit and then I didn't really see him again.

I didn't mind that I wouldn't see Alistair again because he wasn't really my friend, but I was sad that he didn't say goodbye. I didn't like it when people didn't say goodbye. I wondered why Daddy looked worried.

Inside, everybody was in the sitting room. It was a good thing that our sitting room was big, not like Granddad Charlie's, because everybody wouldn't fit in there. They were standing in a huge circle all round the room so everybody could see everybody else and everybody looked sad or worried or scared or angry. Uncle Jasper wouldn't like it here.

In the middle of the circle, Granddad Carlisle and Amun were talking. Or Granddad was talking and Amun was shouting. Amun wasn't very nice to me. He didn't ever touch me, and he didn't let his mate touch me either, and I thought that was mean too. What if Kebi wanted to let me talk to her? I liked Benjamin and Tia, though. Tia was very quiet and gentle and Benjamin was very jolly and cheerful. He didn't look very cheerful now, though. He was standing next to Granddad and looking at Amun angrily. Tia was standing just behind him, with her hand on his elbow. Kebi was standing just behind Amun, too, and Grandma Esme was standing behind Granddad Carlisle. Daddy grabbed Momma's hand and pulled her to stand next to Grandma Esme, and because Momma was carrying me, I came too. Zafrina and Senna moved away from each other so we could get through, but they didn't look at us. They were staring at Amun. Jacob stayed back a bit, next to Senna, because Amun didn't really like werewolves either.

"You're stealing half my coven, Carlisle!" Amun shouted, and his voice was very loud and high pitched. I pulled my eyebrows in close together because it sounded ugly. "Is that why you called me here? To steal from me?"

Stealing was bad, I knew that, but Granddad Carlisle didn't do bad things. Amun must be wrong.

"Yes, Carlisle picked a fight with the Volturi, endangered his whole family, just to lure me here to my death," Benjamin said. He was lying so that everyone knew he was lying. I thought that was okay.

I wanted to ask Momma or Daddy what they were talking about, but I thought it might distract them, so I decided not to. I thought I knew what was going on, but I wasn't sure. Alistair had left so Amun was upset. I didn't know why. Now Amun thought Benjamin was going to die and he was angry and upset because of that. But Benjamin sounded like he didn't think he was going to die.

That confused me as well. Vampires didn't die. Animals died and humans died, either when they got too old or when they got killed, but vampires and werewolves didn't get old. Did that mean they could get killed? But vampires didn't get eaten and werewolves didn't get eaten and that was why animals and humans got killed. Why would anyone kill a vampire or a werewolf? Or me?

I worked it out then. Lots of people were scared of me. If I got killed, they wouldn't have to be scared any more. So vampires and werewolves must get killed when people were scared of them I hugged Momma a bit tighter. Why would anyone be scared of Benjamin? He was so cheerful and friendly. Nobody should be afraid of Benjamin. Except for humans, of course. I wished Benjamin didn't drink from humans. I wished none of them did.

"It's not going to come to fight," Granddad was saying.

"You say!" said Amun. That was a silly thing to say.

"If it does, you can always switch sides, Amun. I'm sure the Volturi will appreciate your help."

"Perhaps that _is _the answer," Amun said, making his face look mean. I was a little bit scared then.

"I wouldn't hold that against you, Amun. We have been friends for a long time, but I would never ask you to die for me," Granddad said. Did he think that people were going to die too? I felt really scared then. Granddad was very clever, he knew lots of things, so maybe people were going to die.

But I knew that already, I told myself. I did, really. I just didn't like thinking about it, because it made me scared and sad. I tried not to think about it, but my eyes were a bit wetter than normal.

I looked up at Amun exactly when he looked down at me. I hoped he didn't see that I was nearly crying.

"I will witness that the child has grown," he said. "That's nothing but the truth. Anyone would see that." He looked a bit calmer now. I tried to smile at him, but he wasn't looking at me.

"That's all we've ever asked," Granddad said.

Amun looked angry again, then. Why? It wasn't Granddad's fault. Who was he angry at? Why was he being angry at all? It didn't help anything ever, that's what Granddad said. Adults could be so silly sometimes.

Amun looked angry at Benjamin now, even though he was part of the same coven. "I gave you life," he said. I guessed that meant Amun had turned Benjamin into a vampire. "You're wasting it."

Benjamin didn't look very happy or cheerful now, but he didn't look angry either. He looked like he was disappointed or sad, or something else a bit like it. I didn't know how to describe it. "It's a pity you couldn't replace my will with your own in the process; perhaps then you would have been satisfied with me."

I didn't really understand why, but Amun suddenly looked even more angry than before. He flung his arm out to the side really fast and then he walked out of the door, holding his head really high. Senna and Zafrina moved out of the way again and Kebi followed him, copying the way his head was held high. Where were they going? Was Amun leaving like Alistair? Did that mean other people were going to leave too? Wasn't he going to say goodbye?

"He's not leaving," Daddy said.

Good, I thought.

"But he'll be keeping his distance even more from now on. He wasn't bluffing when he spoke of joining the Volturi," Daddy added.

"Why did Alistair go?" Momma whispered.

I wondered why she was whispering. Everyone would hear her anyway. Maybe she was feeling scared, like me. I looked up at her face and she looked frightened. Daddy was still holding her hand, though, which I knew would make her feel better. Both Mom and Dad always felt better when they were together. They were almost always together anyway.

"I suppose he decided the danger was too much," Daddy was saying.

Suddenly, Eleazar started talking. He was standing very close to Carmen. "From the sound of his mumblings, it was a bit more than that. We haven't spoken much of the Volturi agenda, but Alistair was worried that no matter how decisively we can prove your innocence, the Volturi will not listen. He thinks they will find an excuse to achieve their goals here."

What goals? I was confused. What would they do? I looked at Momma, but she was watching Stefan and Vladimir, and I looked at Daddy but he was watching everyone. I guessed he was listening to all their thoughts. Grandma Esme and Granddad Carlisle were talking to each other in quiet voices so I looked for Auntie Rosalie and Uncle Emmett instead. They were standing by the window and Auntie Rosalie had put her hand on Uncle Emmett's arm, like she did when she was trying to stop him fighting with Uncle Jasper. He did look a bit angry.

"Stupid Egyptian idiot," he grumbled.

Auntie Rosalie looked angry too. "He volunteered for this. If he won't fight with us, why can't he just stand aside?"

"Idiot," Uncle Emmett said again. He was funny.

I saw Carmen move over to them, Eleazar very close behind. "He is scared," she said.

"Isn't everyone?" Auntie Rosalie said.

I was surprised. Did that mean she was scared? Auntie Rosalie was never scared. She was always really brave and really strong. Uncle Emmett was never scared either because only Momma was stronger than him, and that was only because she was young. He said Momma was younger than me, which was funny, and then Auntie Rosalie had told him off for confusing me.

"No," Eleazar said. "Listen to the Romanians."

I didn't know who the Romanians were until I saw where they were looking: Stefan and Vladimir. I thought Vladimir was a funny name. The 'vl' bit was funny when you said it. Stefan and Vladimir were a bit odd, too. Eleazar was right, they weren't scared. They were happy because there was going to be a fight. I didn't understand that. But they were really, really old. Maybe they had been in fights before and they knew they weren't going to die. Maybe they didn't know that it was a proper fight this time, not like when Uncle Emmett and Uncle Jasper fought, because that was just for fun. I didn't know. They were odd, though.

At the moment, they were talking quietly like everybody else, but they didn't look scared or angry or upset like everyone else.

"If we can just cripple them, even, expose them..." Stefan said. Who were they talking about?

"Then, someday, others will finish the job," Vladimir said. The must know each other very very well, because it sounded like they knew what the other one was thinking about, but they didn't have gifts like Daddy.

"And our long vendetta will be repaid. At last."

I didn't know what vendetta meant. It was a pretty word though. It sounded like a butterfly, like flutter. I would ask Mom or Dad later.

"It seems the only way," they said at exactly the same time. I smiled a bit because it sounded funny.

"So we fight," said Stefan, and then they were both smiling, too. Were they really happy because there was going to be a fight? That was a stupid thing to be happy about, even if you were really good at fights. They must not know that it was a proper fight.

"We fight," Vladimir said. That was stupid, too. Stefan had already said that.

Momma shivered, and I noticed because she was holding me so I shivered too. I hoped Momma wasn't too scared. She knew it was a proper fight.

"We will fight, too," Tia said. Why did _they _want to fight? "We believe the Volturi will overstep their authority. We have no wish to belong to them."

I didn't know if that was a very good reason. I didn't really know what the Volturi were like. I didn't think I wanted to know. Suddenly I was scared too. And everyone was saying they were going to fight. Benjamin, and Garrett, and Tanya, and because Tanya said it, that meant Kate, Carmen and Eleazar would too. I didn't want them to fight. But Peter (and Charlotte) and Mary and Randall didn't know. I wondered if they would say yes or no when they did decide.

Suddenly Jake said, "The packs will fight with the Cullens. We're not afraid of vampires."

Did that mean all my family was going to fight? Even Momma and Daddy? I knew Momma had been practising fighting, but I thought that was just in case. I didn't know she had decided to fight. I didn't know she had _chosen_ to fight.

Then Maggie stepped away from Siobhan and said she was going to fight, too. Did everyone really want to fight? I was really scared now. I didn't want to fight anyone ever. Did that mean I was even more different from everyone else?

"Carlisle," said Siobhan. She sounded really worried. "I don't want this to come to a fight."

I breathed out a lot of air quickly. Good. Maybe that meant other people didn't want a fight, either.

"Nor do I, Siobhan," Granddad Carlisle said. That made me feel a lot better. If Granddad Carlisle didn't want a fight, but Jake said the werewolves would fight with the Cullens, that meant Granddad Carlisle didn't want to fight but was going to anyway, which meant he had to, so maybe it was the same with Momma. She didn't _want _to fight.

But did that mean she had to fight? Did that mean everybody had to fight? And if they did, what would happen if Mary and Randall and Peter and Charlotte didn't fight? And Amun and Kebi, too. Would that make it more dangerous for everyone else, for Momma and Daddy and Jake and everybody else?

I was frightened again. I was really, really frightened. But Jake saw me and grinned at me, and I smiled at him because Jake always made me smile. And Granddad Carlisle was smiling now as well, so maybe it wasn't that frightening. After all, I was only little. They all knew a lot more than me. Maybe they knew that it was going to be okay. Auntie Alice would know. I wished she would come back and tell us. If Auntie Alice was here, I didn't think I'd be very scared.

* * *

A/N: Bearing in mind my ban on fanfic and also the fact that my GCSEs are looming ever closer, I have no idea when I'll next update. Sorry. I will try, I promise. And I apologise for any typos. I've just got a new computer and spellcheck hasn't been installed yet and if I'd stopped to proofread I wouldn't have had time to type it and post it without getting caught. So if you spot any mistakes, do tell me and I'll change them when I can. Thanks for sticking with me!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Shock, horror! TheSingingGirl's posting again! I know, I know, and I'm sorry. I've told you all about the revision situation, and I really should be worried that my first exam is in less than ninety six hours time, but never mind. Here we are. Chapter eight!

* * *

Daddy leant over to Momma and said, "Shall we go hunting now?"

Momma looked a bit happier. I think she wanted to go somewhere else, where everyone wasn't. "Yeah, that would be great."

"Hey, I'm coming too," Jake said, coming over so he was next to us. "Get away from a bit of the stench," he muttered.

I thought it was funny how the werewolves thought that the vampires smelled bad, and the vampires thought that the werewolves smelled bad. I thought they all smelled good, even though they were really different. Vampires smelled sweet, like Granddad Charlie said cranberry sauce was sweet, and werewolves smelled sort of warmer. They smelled a bit of blood, but they didn't make me very thirsty at all. It was just a nice, warm blood smell, not a food blood smell.

We went outside, and it was snowing now, but it wasn't like in books where the ground was all covered in snow and you could see footprints and make snowballs and snowmen, because it disappeared before it landed on the floor. It was a bit cold, but I didn't worry about cold because I was always hot, like Jacob and the other werewolves. Plus, vampires were always cold, and I was with vampires all the time, so I was used to the cold.

"Stupid leeches," Jake said, complaining. "Think they're so superior."

Momma had told me what a leech really was. It was a little animal that drank blood like vampires, but was black and slimy, not like vampires. It was a wolf thing, she said. They liked calling vampires leeches or bloodsuckers, just like vampires like Auntie Rosalie called the werewolves dogs and mutts and mongrels. Like a nickname, but a funny one, not like Nessie or Rose or Em.

Daddy smiled. "They'll be shocked when the _infants_ save their superior lives, won't they?" he asked.

Jake smiled too. "Hell yeah, they will!" he said, and then he hit Daddy's shoulder. He wasn't doing it to hurt him, it was just friendly. Boys were silly like that, that's what Auntie Rosalie said.

Momma smiled as well, and I was smiling anyway because Jake was funny. We got to the river then, so me and Momma and Daddy jumped over, and we carried on going quite slowly until Jake caught up with us. He was a wolf now. I liked Jacob being a wolf, because he was fluffy and soft, and he could run as fast as a vampire (but not Daddy) so he didn't get left behind. It was funny, too, because he couldn't talk when he was a wolf, so he got a bit annoyed sometimes, and that made me laugh.

I twisted round to put my hand on Momma's neck, so I could tell her that I wanted to ride on Jacob's back. I reached out with my other hand to tell him, too. Daddy knew anyway, because Daddy always knew.

"Jake?" Momma asked, and Jake nodded his big furry head, up and down. He bent down a bit so Momma could reach properly, because he was nearly the same height as two of her, and she lifted me onto his back. I grabbed on to his fur so I could stay on, and Jake started running.

Riding Jake was always exciting. I got to go really fast through the trees without worrying about where I was running, so I could look around, like when Mom or Dad was carrying me, and I liked going fast, but that was just like always. Running with Jake was different because he didn't run all flat, he bounced through the forest in big long bounds. And Jake looked like he was part of the forest, sometimes, because he was all red and brown, like a tree trunk. Mom and Dad didn't look like that. They looked just how they always looked, but Jake changed into part of the woods. That was exciting.

Jake and me usually hunted near where Mom and Dad were hunting, but not too near. I didn't mind; it was nice to go off with Jake on our own. I loved being in the forest. It was so different from being inside the Big House or the Little Cottage, or inside anywhere. It was like a different world. But when Mom and Dad were there, it was easier to remember the other world, the world with all the people, so I really liked going with just Jake, because Jake was in both worlds.

I didn't used to like hunting lots, because I didn't like animal blood much, but I thought it was alright now. Running and catching animals was fun and if I didn't think about it, it didn't taste so bad. Plus, me and Jake always had a competition to see who could get the biggest animal. I won a lot of the time, which was strange because he was older than me and bigger than me so he should have been better at hunting. I liked winning.

Today, we didn't go very far. I knew everybody wanted to stay near the house now, just in case. That was a funny phrase. How could you get in a case? But Daddy had told me what it meant when I heard someone talking about it a few days ago, so I knew now. It was still funny.

Soon, I smelt something with blood in it and I patted Jake's shoulder to tell him. He probably smelt it too. He didn't smell blood like vampires did, but he smelt the different animals, he said. Wolves ate the actual animal, they didn't just drink the blood. I thought that was disgusting. I didn't like meat. But the wolves normally just ate human food. Jake came hunting just because he liked coming hunting with me.

I jumped down from Jake's back and started running. Running was fun, but not as fun as running with someone. I could smell the blood somewhere in _that _direction, so I followed it. It was a deer, or an elk, or something like that. That was good, because Momma still didn't like it if I tried to get a lion or a bear or something that ate other animals. She was silly.

I could hear Jake behind me, but I wasn't listening to him anymore. I was listening to the deer. They were closer now. I was very quiet so I wouldn't scare them away, and I went very quickly so they couldn't run away. The blood smelt bad, because it was animal blood, not human blood, but it was still blood so I wanted it. I was running very very fast now and I was almost there. Suddenly, I could see them! There was a lot of deer there, but I didn't want to count them, because I was hunting now, so I didn't have time. They realised I was there very quickly, and they started running away, but they were really slow. I found the biggest one there and jumped on its back. It was a boy deer, and I knew that because it had big antlers on its head. I laughed because it was trying to shake me off. It was a bit like riding Jacob, sitting on the deer's back, but I didn't want to go anywhere, so I bit its neck to kill it so it would stop. It slowed down, then fell down because I was drinking its blood.

Jake was here now, too. He had got another deer, a girl one without antlers, and he was eating it. I wasn't looking at him though, because when I was drinking, I wasn't really thinking about anything else.

I didn't drink all of it. Usually I drank one whole deer or sometimes more, but today I wasn't very hungry or thirsty because I'd eaten lots of cranberry sauce at Granddad Charlie's house. Jake didn't eat all of his deer either, because he had eaten lots and lots at lunchtime, too. I went over to him when he put the body down, and put my hand on his front leg to tell him that I won again. He shook his head with big movements, but I nodded and pulled him over to my deer to show him how much bigger it was. When he saw it, he lay down on the ground and put his head down on his paws, to show that he was sad. I didn't want him to be sad, so I climbed on his back again and started stroking his long red-brown fur on his neck.

Soon, he lifted his head up again, and he stood up, too. I knew he wasn't feeling sad anymore because he wasn't moving slowly, like he was tired. He started walking back the way we had come, following our scents. I showed him a picture of the Big House to ask if we were going home now. He nodded. I think he wanted to say something else, but he couldn't because he was a wolf, so I giggled. Suddenly, he stopped moving and fell to the ground, so he was lying down again. I jumped off, and he rolled over, so his tummy was facing upwards. I jumped on top of him again, laughing, and he was laughing too. Wolf laughing sounded funnier than vampire or werewolf or human laughing, so it made me laugh more, and then he was laughing more. Jake was so much fun to be around.

I tapped him and told him that I wanted to play chase before we went home, but I ran away before he had time to get up. I knew he could smell me and he could hear me, but I kept running, in and out of the trees, and he was following me very quickly. Soon, I knew he was going to catch me, so I jumped up into a tree and started climbing right to the top. Wolves couldn't climb trees like me! Jake growled, somewhere much lower than my feet, and I started jumping from one tree to another tree to another tree. He was following me, but he couldn't catch me. After a while, that began to get boring, so I started going down again, and I jumped onto Jacob's back. He jumped, because I surprised him, which made me giggle but I hung on so I didn't fall off.

_Your turn! _I told him, and I jumped off so he could run away. Jake could be very very fast, but I always caught him up in the end. I loved playing with Jake in the forest. We didn't have to worry about damaging the furniture when we were outside, because there wasn't any furniture. We didn't have to pretend to be human. We could just have fun.

I chased Jake for a while, but I caught him up, and soon we went back to the house. We got to the river at the same time as Mom and Dad, because they were hunting for longer than us, but we spent more time playing.

"Had fun, you two?" Momma asked as we jumped over the river.

I nodded and held out my arms so she would pick me up off Jake's back, so he could turn into his other shape again. He ran off behind a tree so he could change and I told Momma all about our games of chase, and how I jumped on Jacob from the tree, and how I caught a much bigger deer than him.

"Well done," Daddy said, smiling at me. "Quite the little huntress."

I smiled a huge smile. I liked it when people said I was good at things, because normally everyone was better than me. The vampires were faster than me, the werewolves were better at eating human food, and everyone was older than me so they were better at reading and writing and music and drawing and everything else. Auntie Rosalie said that was just because I was little, and I would grow up and be just as good as anyone else, but it was still nice when people said I was good even though I was small.

Jake came back, dressed just in his shorts because he couldn't ever be bothered to wear anything else, and he grinned at Daddy.

"Right, guess I'd better get back off home," Jake said.

"Before Billy forgets who you are," Momma said. She was smiling, and I didn't think Billy, who was Jacob's dad, would really forget who Jake was.

"Exactly," Jake said. "See you tomorrow then, Ness."

"Her name just gets shorter and shorter," Momma said, but she held me out so Jake could give me a hug.

"Bye," I said to Jake.

"See ya," he said, smiling, and then he passed me back to Momma. He ran off back into the woods to go back to his house, and me, Mom and Dad went back to our Big House.

* * *

A/N: I've totally lost track of how many more chapters I said there would be, but I'm ninety eight per cent sure that the next chapter will be the last, with an epilogue to come after that. However, I'd hate to just leave you waiting for an epilogue, so what I'm planning to do is write both simultaneously, and then post them within a couple of minutes of each other. So for all intents and purposes, this is the penultimate chapter. :(


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Blimey, this got long. But it's the last chapter (sob) so... Anyway. Enjoy.

* * *

I pressed my hand to Momma's neck again to ask her if we could go and get the presents out of the car. I wanted to show Uncle Emmett my teddy bear.

"Of course, sweetie," Momma said.

"I need to move the car anyway," Daddy said. "But it's getting late now, so bed in an hour, alright?"

I didn't think that was alright. I wanted to play with Uncle Emmett and I wanted to tell Grandma Esme and Auntie Rosalie about everything that happened at Granddad Charlie's, and I wanted Zafrina to show me some more pretty pictures.

"Well next time, think about how long you're spending playing with Jake, then," Daddy said.

I pulled my eyebrows in tight together to show that I was annoyed.

"Edward." Momma said. "It is Christmas day."

She agreed with me! I ignored Daddy and looked at Momma, making my eyes go really big because people said I looked cute when I did that. I put my hand on her cheek and said _please?_

"She has to have a bath, too, you know. Go on, an hour and a half," she said.

Daddy smiled and laughed a bit. Yes! "Who am I to deny my beautiful girls?"

I grinned. Daddy always said yes to Momma. Whenever I wanted something, if Momma didn't mind, I could have it, because Daddy would let her give it to me. So anyway, we all went round the house without going in and went to the car. Daddy opened the trunk and got out my bear, Momma's CDs and the toaster. What was a toaster anyway? What did it toast? Did it use fire?

"It's used to toast bread, and no, it doesn't use fire," Daddy told me.

Momma smiled. "Maybe we'll have to try it out for you," she said to me. "Toast with lots and lots of jelly. That's like cranberry sauce."

I thought that would be okay. I didn't know what bread tasted like, or if cooked bread would taste different, but if it had lots of cranberry sauce stuff on it, it would probably taste nice. Daddy smiled and gave the bear to me to carry. I held it like Mom was holding me, one arm behind its back and one arm underneath it. Then we all went up the steps into the house again, like we'd done when we got back from Granddad Charlie's, but this time there wasn't any arguing going on. I wondered where Amun and Kebi were. Maybe they were hunting somewhere. I didn't like that idea. I thought it was especially mean to hunt humans on Christmas day, because Christmas was supposed to be happy, and it was celebrating the start of a human's life so it shouldn't be the end. Daddy looked over and nodded at me.

Inside, almost everyone had gone somewhere else. I could hear some people upstairs, but I didn't bother working out who was there. In the lounge, there was only Grandma Esme, Granddad Carlisle, Auntie Rosalie, Uncle Emmett, Carmen, Eleazar and Tanya. Kate must be somewhere with Garrett. The vampires from Denali were with our family more than everyone else because they knew our family better and because they hunted animals so we got on better with them most of the time. It was always really odd when the other vampires mentioned hunting humans, because they thought it was fun and really normal, but we didn't. We thought it wasn't fun at all. We thought it was horrible. I didn't understand why the other vampires didn't think it was horrible. Didn't they understand that humans were people too?

"Hello Renesmee darling," Auntie Rosalie said. Momma put me down so I could run over to her and so she could put me on the sofa in between her and Uncle Emmett and hug me. "Oh, you really need a wash. Look at you, you've got mud everywhere, and you really do smell."

I giggled, and Momma laughed. Grandma Esme smiled. "You can't go on saying that forever, Rose. One day she'll take offence."

"She can't, cos it's true. You stink, Nessie-boo," Uncle Emmett told me.

"Emmett!" said Daddy, Grandma Esme and Auntie Rosalie said. Granddad Carlisle shook his head, but he was smiling. I just giggled more. It was silly how they all thought Jake smelled. He did smell different, but he smelled nice. He smelled like the forest, with all the trees and the mud and the grass and the leaves and his blood. Vampires smelled nice too, but they smelt more like snow because it was cold and fresh and beautiful and they smelled like flowers too, even though there weren't flowers when it snowed.

I wondered what I smelled of to Jake, because I knew how I smelled to vampires. Daddy had told me a long time ago, and Momma had too, and so had Auntie Rosalie when she was telling me why I had to have a bath. But I didn't know how I smelled to werewolves. I would have to ask Jacob tomorrow.

"What's this?" Auntie Rosalie asked, looking at my teddy bear.

I put the bear on my lap so I could put one hand on her arm and one on Uncle Emmett's arm and tell them all about how I got it from Granddad Charlie, and how I had unwrapped it neatly and how I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but I did now.

"Awesome!" Uncle Emmett said. "I used to have one of these when I was a kid!"

"Aw, how sweet," Daddy said.

"Oi! Don't get sarky with me, Eddie!" Uncle Emmett said. "I was, like, tiny!"

"What sort of grammar is that, Emmett?" Momma asked.

"I'm just keeping in line with the times," he answered. "Yeah, anyway, I used to play hunting games with it. I'd pretend I was hunting it—like a human, with a gun—and I'd always get it. _It _never got _me_, because what would be the fun in that? You want to know why I became a vampire? Because I had a teddy bear."

I knew that Emmett had become a vampire because he got attacked by a bear when he was human, and Auntie Rosalie saved him and brought him to Granddad Carlisle so he could change him, because Auntie Rosalie loved him, even though she didn't know him. I didn't think having a teddy bear really made him turn into a vampire. _I _wasn't going to turn into a vampire because I had a teddy bear.

"What he means, Renesmee, is that he became overconfident hunting bears because he was used to winning against his teddy bear when he was a child, so he wasn't careful enough when he got attacked," Daddy explained.

Oh, right. Well, that was a bit silly. I told Uncle Emmett that he was very silly because everybody knew that bears were stronger than humans and teddy bears were just pretending to be bears really so they weren't anything like them.

"Hey, I know!" he said. "But—"

"Just admit it, Emmett, you've been outsmarted by your own niece," Daddy said.

"Oh, Nessie bests me every time," Uncle Emmett said and he ruffled my hair. It didn't really work because I still had French plaits in.

I grinned, and added the word 'bests' to my memory. I didn't know you could use it like that. I was learning so much every day.

"Right, shall we have a bath and you can tell me all about your day at Granddad Charlie's," Auntie Rosalie said. That was a funny thing to say, because it sounded like it should be a question, but her voice didn't go up at the end like it was supposed to when you ask a question, so really it wasn't a question at all.

Anyway, I nodded and held out my arms so she could pick me up. Then I remembered that I wanted to tell Grandma Esme about my day too.

"Grandma Esme, can you come too?" I asked, because she wasn't sitting near me so I couldn't touch her.

She smiled. "Of course, sweetie."

"I need to phone Renée," Momma said. Renée was my other Grandma, Momma's mom. "See you soon, darling."

I waved at her and Auntie Rosalie picked me up to carry me upstairs to her bathroom. It was really hers and Uncle Emmett's bathroom, but everybody just said it was Auntie Rosalie's bathroom. It was the same in Auntie Alice's room. No one ever called it Uncle Jasper's room. But our little cottage was always called Bella and Edward's cottage. I asked why that was once, but Grandma Esme didn't know.

Auntie Rosalie's bathroom was huge and it had a huge bath in it. It was big enough for at least five vampires all at once and it was really deep, but there were seats at the edges. The walls were all very pale blue and the floor was covered in stones which were pale blue, too. It was like looking at the sky. I thought it was very pretty. There were two cupboards which were painted the same as the walls and in them there were lots of bottles of bubble bath and soap and things like that.

"Which bubbles do you want today?" Auntie Rosalie asked.

I leant my head over to one side as I was thinking, and then I told her that I wanted the strawberry ones. Strawberries were fruit that humans liked to eat and Momma said they were very sweet. I just liked the smell, but Daddy said he did too because it reminded him of Momma because she used strawberry shampoo. So we both smelled of strawberries because I almost always chose strawberries.

Grandma Esme turned on the taps while Auntie Rosalie put the bubble bath in, and the water started coming out, so fast that it looked white. There were eight taps, two on each side of the bath. Four of them were cold taps and four of them were hot taps. Grandma turned on the hot taps more than the cold ones because I was hotter than a human so I liked it when the water was really warm, especially because all the vampires were always so cold so it was different. I didn't mind the cold because I didn't get cold, I just stayed warm, but I did like it when I was warm. When we were at the cottage, I liked to sit in front of the fire with Mom and Dad, and the fire would warm them up and it would just be lovely and warm for me. That fire didn't scare me, because Mom and Dad knew how dangerous fire was because they were vampires so they knew they could get hurt by it and they were very careful.

While the bath was filling up quickly because there were lots of taps, Grandma Esme took out the green ribbons in my hair and undid the plaits. It felt like when Auntie Rosalie was putting them in, with her hands flicking in and out so fast, brushing against my head. I liked it when people played with my hair. Once Grandma was finished, I shook my head so my hair flew about my head so it would forget that it had been in plaits. My head felt funny when I did that because my hair felt like it should still be in the same place and it tingled. Auntie Rosalie undid my shoes while I took my cardigan off and then she started to undo the buttons down the back of my green silk dress. When she finished, I stepped out of the dress and I took off my socks and underwear, then Grandma Esme picked me up and put me in the bath. It was exactly the right warmth because we had done this before and they couldn't forget how I liked it because they were vampires. I grinned and ducked my head under the water and turned over in a somersault. The water was fun because I didn't have to be standing up or sitting down. I could float, and it was like flying, like birds. Sometimes I wanted to stay underwater for a really long time, but I couldn't because I needed to breathe. It wasn't fair. Mom and Dad and all the other vampires didn't have to breathe. Jake did though, so that was a bit better.

I heard Auntie Rosalie squeal a bit and I stuck my head out of the water to see why.

"My hair! Nessie, I've just washed it today!"

I had gotten her hair wet. Oops. Auntie Rosalie didn't like it when her hair got wet. I didn't think it looked worse when it was wet, or when it dried after it was wet, but Auntie Rosalie was better at looking good than me, so I was probably wrong.

"Sorry Auntie Rosalie," I said. I couldn't touch her because I was all wet and plus I was in the middle of the bath and she was sitting outside it so I couldn't reach.

"That's alright," she said, and she smiled a bit. "I'll just have to blow-dry it again."

I saw Grandma Esme smiling. She thought Auntie Rosalie didn't need to do her hair again either. Grandma Esme didn't mind it if I got her a bit wet at bathtime because she said since it was raining all the time, it was silly to worry about a bit of water.

"Shampoo?" Grandma Esme said, and she got out my bottle of shampoo, the one that smelled of 'fruits of the forest'. I never saw any fruits in the forest, but fruits were from the summer and I was born in the fall so maybe I would see some next year. I had to wait for the rest of winter and the whole of spring to go by first though.

I swam over to the side of the bath so Grandma Esme could wash my hair. I could do it myself, but it was nicer when someone else did it and Grandma Esme liked doing my hair. She rolled up her sleeves so she didn't get her clothes wet (when my clothes were wet they dried a lot quicker than vampires' clothes because I was warmer), poured some shampoo into her hand and started washing my hair. I closed my eyes so I could stop seeing and just feel instead. Her cold fingers rubbed over my warm head and through my wet hair and I smiled. It made me feel very relaxed and a bit tired.

Soon, Grandma was finished so I opened my eyes again and dived back under the water again to get the bubbles out. That made me feel a bit more awake again. I tossed my head about a bit and ran my fingers through my hair to get the rest of the shampoo out, and then I came back up so I could get the soap. Auntie Rosalie had already put it on the side of the bath for me with my cloth. I squirted some onto the cloth and began running it all over my body. I did it quickly because it meant I had to get bits of my body out of the water, and it was warmer in the water than out of it.

Then I put the cloth back on the side of the bath and I was about to go back under the water when Grandma Esme said "Have you washed the back of your neck?"

I hadn't, so I picked up the cloth again and washed the back of my neck, but I scowled at Grandma Esme first because I wanted to just have fun.

"Don't pull faces, Nessie," Auntie Rosalie said.

I remembered what Jake had said this morning about my face getting stuck if I made faces and smiled.

"That's better," Auntie Rosalie said. I wondered if she would think it was better if she knew I was thinking about Jacob. "Right then, I'm going to dry my hair while you're playing."

I always played in the bath for quite a long time, so Auntie Rosalie should have enough time to dry her hair. She took ages on her hair, even though it always looked the same. She went to get a hairdryer and a bristly brush from her room and she sat on a chair quite far away from the bath because you must never use electricity near water. The hairdryer made a really loud noise and it was funny when I went underwater because it sounded different, like it was singing a different note. I kept going above the water and under the water again to hear the difference, but after a bit it got annoying so I just stayed under the water until I needed to breathe, doing somersaults and trying not to float back to the surface. When I got bored of that, I lay on top of the water, floating, and closed my eyes, listening to the hairdryer. Grandma Esme was probably just watching my face, because she did that a lot. She was always watching me and smiling. I loved Grandma Esme.

Auntie Rosalie turned off the hairdryer and I opened my eyes. I felt really tired now, but I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to go to bed yet. I still hadn't told Grandma Esme about my day yet. And I hadn't seen Zafrina. And I didn't like trying to go to sleep. I liked being asleep, because dreaming was fun and warm and soft, and I liked waking up because there was a new day to come, but I didn't like going to bed and waiting to fall asleep.

"Is that water not cold yet?" Auntie Rosalie asked. "You've been in there half an hour."

It was a bit cold. I tried to decide _how _cold it was, but I couldn't really. It was warmer than a vampire and colder than me, but most things were like that. Air was like that. I thought the water was warmer than the air, but I was wet so I couldn't really tell.

"Come on," Grandma Esme said. "Time to get out."

I jumped out of the bath, trying not to get water everywhere but I did get quite a lot on the floor. Never mind; I always got some water on the floor. Grandma Esme had a big fluffy white towel to wrap around me and Auntie Rosalie had another one to dry my hair with. I closed my eyes again while she rubbed my hair so the water came off and Grandma did the same to the rest of me and I yawned once.

"It's been a long day for you, hasn't it?" Grandma Esme said. I put my hand on her arm and told her that I thought that was odd because every day was twenty four hours so how could this day be longer?

"I just mean that it feels like a long day," she said.

That made sense. I was tired and a lot had happened today. First it was presents and then it was Granddad Charlie's and then it was Amun and then it was hunting and playing in the forest and then it was bathtime and then it was now. That seemed like too many things for one day. I nodded.

Auntie Rosalie stopped drying my hair and Grandma Esme picked me up then because she was finished drying my body, but I was still wrapped in the towel so I didn't get too cold. She took me through to Auntie Rosalie's room and sat me down on the bed.

"What colour pyjamas would you like?" Auntie Rosalie asked as she went over to her chest of drawers.

I bit my top lip as I was thinking, which made Grandma Esme smile, probably because Momma always bit her bottom lip. I didn't think it was anything special. It was like I had Daddy's hair and Momma's old eyes, it was just me. "Blue," I decided.

"Blue it is," Auntie Rosalie said. "You look adorable in blue. It's your skin tone, it just loves that colour. And it matches your bedroom, of course."

How could my skin tone love a colour? I was going to ask, but I decided it didn't matter. It was just another fashion thing that Auntie Rosalie liked, and Auntie Alice, of course. I pulled on the pyjamas that Auntie Rosalie gave me and Grandma Esme did up the buttons on the top for me. I was too tired. I didn't want to fall asleep, so I put my hand on Grandma Esme's cheek to tell her that I wanted to tell her about my day at Granddad Charlie's. And Auntie Rosalie too.

"Alright, why doesn't Auntie Rosalie dry your hair and then you can tell us all about your day?" Grandma Esme said, and she sat down next to me. Auntie Rosalie kneeled on the bed behind me with her hairdryer and turned it on. It was very loud right next to my head and it annoyed me, but they knew that I didn't like it and I really didn't like it when I was tired, so she didn't do it for very long. She'd already dried my hair lots with the towel and she didn't dry it until it was really properly dry because it would dry soon anyway because I was always hot. When she was finished, she came and sat down and pulled me on her lap so I could touch her cheek with one hand and Grandma Esme's with the other one. Then I went back to the beginning of today and told them everything.

In the car: _Daddy didn't answer any of my questions and my eyebrows scrunched together more. The world was getting more and more confusing._

At Granddad's: _"Hey kids, Merry Christmas!" Granddad said. "Merry Christmas, Ness- Renesmee," he said quickly, looking at Momma._

_---A Christmas tree, with a gold sparkly star on top and twinkling lights dangling from the branches._

_---Half of Emily was pretty and half of her wasn't. She had three long lines down her face and neck which looked like ropes pulling her face in weird directions. It looked like she'd been hurt, but it didn't hurt any more._

_---Underneath, there was a toy bear. It was the colour of a pine trunk, dark and shadowy, with a patch that was almost white on its tummy. It had almost-white paws as well. That was silly: bears walked in the mud on their paws. And their paws were usually black, anyway. The toy's eyes were bright black, shiny and hard, and there was a little sparkle in the corner. It was smiling, even though bears don't smile._

_---Emily held out her left hand. On the finger next to her little one was a ring like my bracelet, only smaller, of course. Hers wasn't brown and red, either, it was blue and green. Like leaves and the sky and grass and the river and moss._

_---Then I tried the cranberry sauce. And smiled._

_---Why did you used to loathe and detest each other?_

"_Because Jacob used to be very immature and aggressive," Daddy told me._

"_And your daddy was very arrogant and possessive. No, wait, he still is."_

_---_ _Almost everybody said "Merry Christmas" back. Leah didn't. She wasn't smiling any more. That was sad. After that, we went outside again. I waved at everybody._

They knew the next bit because then we went home, and they knew what happened when we went hunting because it was the same as always, and I was tired anyway, so I stopped there.

"Don't worry about Leah," Auntie Rosalie said. "She's just moody."

"Rose," Grandma Esme said. She sounded like a mother then; she was telling her off. "I'm glad you like Emily," she said, talking to me now. "She's a lovely woman."

I told her that I thought she was very nice even if she was a bit surprised about what I could do, and then I yawned.

"Let's brush your hair through," Auntie Rosalie said. I didn't think she was very happy that she got told off. No one liked being told off.

She got her big paddle brush (she had lots of different brushes for different times, like she used her bristle brush earlier when she was drying her hair), kneeled behind me again and started to brush my hair. I really liked it when people did my hair. The brush tugged gently and my aunt's hands stroked softly, and I yawned again.

"Merry Christmas, Renesmee," Grandma Esme whispered.

"Merry Christmas," I said very very quietly. I shut my eyes...

* * *

A/N: Right, I know I said the epilogue would be up five minutes after this, but the epilogue is also scarily long (for an epilogue, at least) , and I thought you perhaps wouldn't mind waiting twelve hours or so for it. You see, it's all finished in my notebook, I just have to type it up. Which I can't do now because my mother can't sleep if I type. Hopefully an A/N won't cause her too much discomfort, but 15 pages in my notebook? I'll wait 'til morning.

Goodnight readers, and goodnight Nessie.


	10. Epilogue

A/N: And so we reach the end. This is from Bella's point of view, and picks up when Renesmee goes off to have her bath.

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I waved Renesmee goodbye and Rosalie took her upstairs to wash. I didn't begrudge her and Esme the time with my daughter; she was their family too and I really did need to phone Renee. I moved over to the phone, but just as I was about to dial, Edward spoke behind me.

"What about the weather?"

His voice was innocently curious, but realisation struck both of us less than a second later.

"It's going to snow, isn't it?" I asked, horrified.

"And settle," Edward confirmed, hearing it in someone's mind.

"The weather forecast says within a week," Carlisle told us. "Five or six days."

"No," I breathed.

Edward was behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, and I knew he didn't want me to see his face. He didn't want to make it worse for me. I felt exactly the same way; I didn't want to make this any worse for him, or for him to see in my eyes that we were doomed.

Carlisle moved toward us, placed a hand on my cheek and on Edward's shoulder. "It's been a month; we were expecting this."

I nodded, but it was obvious I was reeling.

"We're ready, Bella," Tanya said. "There's not much more we could do."

"There's a high possibility that they'll stop and listen," Carmen reminded me.

"And if they don't," Emmett began, but Edward cut him off with a sharp growl.

It was at times like this that I wished Jasper was still here as I struggled to pull myself together but I couldn't do it instantaneously. I turned to Edward and buried my face in his chest, breathing in his scent to calm myself, to remind myself that five days was seven thousand two hundred minutes that I still had with my family. It could never be enough, but it was still something.

I spent a minute or so in silence, in Edward's arms, just taking deep breaths that I didn't need and which didn't help, and I tried not to count the seconds that ticked inexorably by. I was practiced now at controlling my emotions, or at least putting them off until I could indulge in them, so it was a relatively short period of time before I looked back up at Edward's beautiful face to reassure him that I was okay, and I kissed him chastely.

"I'll call Renee before it gets too late," I told him, and tried not to think of that in terms of days.

Carmen, a gentle but passionate woman who I'd come to love, stood up, holding Eleazar's hand and giving Tanya her cue to join them and leave us alone. They left via the back door in the wall of glass, taking the opportunity to do some extra hunting. Emmett, too, left the room for a minute, knowing that I was likely to get emotional when I hung up and wanting to avoid it. I promised myself that I wouldn't let myself go that far.

There was no phone in the cottage besides our cells, seeing as it didn't officially exist and it was designed as a private escape, so I was calling from here. It was, in a way, easier to pretend that things were as they would have been had Renesmee never existed, here. I connected the cottage so much with her, with our little nuclear family. I moved back over to where the cordless phone was mounted on the wall and dialled my mother's familiar number in Jacksonville. It was a world away in more ways than one.

"Hello?" my mom answered. Even in that one word I could hear two things: the first that she was utterly content and the second that she was expecting my cal. Just in that one word, there was enough to make me want to break down again.

"Hey, Mom," I replied, trying to control my voice and to make it sound human. "Merry Christmas."

"Oh, merry Christmas, sweetie! Did you get my present?"

"Yeah, it was really sweet of you," I assured her, smiling at Edward. "Did you get ours?"

Thank goodness for the internet and overnight delivery. We'd sent her a digital photo frame, since I knew Phil loved his gadgets and Renee had photos stuck up everywhere.

"Oh my gosh, honey, it's brilliant! I already got Phil to put all your wedding photos on it; I can see it from over here."

"I'm so glad you liked it," I said, for lack of anything better. "Did you have a good day?"

"Oh sure we did, we had a couple of guys from the baseball team round, and I did the full dinner and everything, and I swear I got the turkey right this time. Well, Phil said I did, but you know what he's like, he's probably lying to make me feel better."

"I'm sure it was great, Mom," I said soothingly.

"Honey, you didn't taste it last year. It was dry as a bone—I think I got the calculations wrong, but I got Mandy from my yoga class to help me out with working it out this year."

"Oh, you're doing yoga now?" I asked. It was a little reminder of how estranged I'd become from Renee; I'd only sent her a couple of emails since my marriage, and none at all in the last month. Before, I used to email her every week at least, entire essays.

"Yeah, well I can't have my husband looking fitter than me, can I? It's brilliant, Bella, so relaxing. You should try it."

"Perhaps I should," I smiled. A little relaxation wouldn't go amiss right now.

"But let's talk about you! First Christmas as a married woman, how was it?"

I rolled my eyes fondly. "I don't think being married has that much to do with Christmas. And we spent the day over at Charlie's, anyway, so it wasn't much different from last year."

I realised what an utter lie that was as soon as the words escaped my mouth, and I turned to face the wall to avoid Edward's gaze. Last Christmas, I'd been human, and I'd been a zombie. I couldn't even remember it properly. I'd blanked it out when I was human and as a vampire I'd all but entirely forgotten it.

"With the whole of Edward's family?" Renee persisted, and I was glad her mind wasn't following the same train of thought as my own.

"No, just me and him," I said. "Everyone else spent it here." It was easier to keep close to the truth than to begin concocting stories which I knew I would just contradict in a minute or two. Still, I decided not to mention Alice and Jasper, and hoped Renee wouldn't either.

"Oh, right." I heard a doorbell in the background, and Renee put her hand over the phone mouthpiece to say, "Phil, can you get that." I heard the carol singers at the door and winced at the out of tune rendition of 'Silent Night'. Didn't these people see the irony?

"Oh gosh, Bella, I'm gonna have to go. It's these carol singers, there are _so _many of them round here! I swear it's just our block, but they're like flies, there's always more."

"Okay, Mom," I said, feeling anything but. Was this my last conversation with her? And was it going to be cut short by some off-key singers?

"Listen, I'll speak to you New Year's Day, alright baby? But let me call you, God know's when I'll wake up!"

_Seven days_. "Um, we might be busy then. Tell you what, I'll call you, but I'll make it in the early evening, okay?" _Don't think that you won't be there. Don't think it. Don't think it._

"Sure thing, sweetie. Say hi to Esme for me, will you?"

"Will do. Say hi to Phil for me."

"Of course. Speak soon, honey. Love you."

"I love you too, Mom."

I heard the click at the end of the line and the discordant carol cut off abruptly. The sudden quiet seemed symbolic. I let out a shaky breath and replaced the phone.

In the following period of waiting for Renesmee to finish her bath, we barely spoke at all. Carlisle was watching the news for updated weather reports. Edward joined him while I merely curled up against my husband and let my mind go where it would, without letting any of my thoughts gain enough weight to affect me too badly.

One of the nicest things about my family was the way that we could exist in silence and never let it bother us. It was never awkward in any way, and even Alice or Emmett, who returned now to half-heartedly watch the news, could remain quiet without letting it bother them. Of course, that didn't mean it happened often for Emmett, but it was more the fact that it _could _happen that mattered.

Eventually, Esme and Rosalie descended the staircase with Renesmee asleep in Rose's arms. She looked perfectly angelic, innocent and content, like an extraordinarily beautiful human child without the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"She fell asleep while Rose was doing her hair," Esme explained softly.

"I told you she wouldn't last an hour and a half," Edward teased me gently.

"I knew that," I informed him. "The important thing is that it made her happy."

"I see," he smiled. "Shall we take her home then?"

I nodded, and we stood up as one, Edward taking her from Rosalie without jostling a single hair on our daughter's head.

"Goodnight," I said to the room at large, and everyone murmured the same back. It was so human. "Renee says hi," I told Esme as we passed her.

She nodded, and kissed my cheek. Esme really was my second mother, the mother Renee had never been. She had heard our earlier discussion and no doubt had wished to gather me in her arms as soon as I mentioned the word 'snow', and she'd kept her granddaughter entertained while we discussed our impending doom.

I would miss them both, if I could, Renee and Esme. I prayed Esme would be spared.

We left then, running through the deepening twilight towards the little cottage that had become part of my definition of the word 'home'. Edward ran at the same slow pace as I was keeping so as not to disturb our sleeping daughter, though I doubted she would stir if he sprinted. We slipped through the unlocked door to our fairytale house and went straight to Renesmee's room to put her to bed.

Edward lay her down on her miniature bed which she should soon outgrow, and kissed her tumbling curls, fanned out on the pillow like halo of bronze. I pulled her duvet over her, tucking it carefully around her shoulders and kissed her smooth, soft forehead. We had repeated these actions for three and a half months and they never failed to comfort me. Today, though, the sight of my slumbering daughter seemed more bitter than sweet.

We stayed for a moment at the foot of her bed, watching her sleep just as Edward used to bear witness to my dreaming. The steady rise and fall of her chest which used to be so soothing to me now seemed to be counting down the time we had left. I was reminded of my change during the first days of Renesmee's life, how I had counted Edward's breaths to mark the time left. I remembered how those three days had lasted an eternity.

Eternity had never seemed longer.

Suddenly the weather forecast hit me again. How long did we have left? Was the forecast right, was it only five days? Did we really only have five days left to live? Only five days left with my daughter. The thought was unbearable. It didn't quite connect with my heart; I couldn't quite comprehend that the end would actually occur, even with my new improved mind.

"Coming, love?" Edward said softly, running his fingers lightly down my arm to take my hand.

Automatically, my fingers twined with his. He could see how upset I was, reading my face and eyes like a book, but he knew not to ask me. For one thing, of course I was distraught as my family prepared for battle, and for another I knew that he had worked out that I had something to hide, and he trusted me to be hiding it. In another life he would have wanted to know, to protect me, but we had more than each other to protect now. We had our daughter.

I squeezed my husband's hand gently, careful not to hurt him. "Give me a moment," I murmured, turning to drown in his deep golden eyes.

He watched me for only a second, and I wondered what he saw. Then he leaned in to kiss me softly and left me there with Renesmee.

I didn't move any closer to her, or sit on the bed as a human would; I was perfectly comfortable standing and I didn't want to risk disturbing her in any way, even if I knew I wouldn't. Instead I just watched her, listened to her steadily beating heart like a butterfly's wings and breathed in her heavenly scent, reminding myself that she was still here and so was I.

I only spent a minute or two in Renesmee's room; she was not the only person I was leaving unwillingly. I made my way to our white room, the echo of our blissful honeymoon, the time of Renesmee's conception. Edward was waiting for me; immediately he drew me to him and kissed me.

"Are you alright now?" he asked me tenderly.

I nodded. It was a lie, but what good would the truth do now?

"Bella," he whispered, seeing through me as he always did. "Let's just make the most of what we have now. Please?"

To my utter horror, I found myself beginning to tremble with unshed tears. I clutched myself tighter to him, and though I was probably hurting him, he held me tighter too.

"Bella?"

He wanted to ask what was wrong, I knew, but he didn't want me to have to admit that I was hiding something, because that would tell Aro for certain that Edward was right. As it stood, he could have been wrong, even if we both knew he wasn't.

"It's our first Christmas," I said in a broken whisper. "Renesmee's first Christmas."

He didn't tell me that it wouldn't be our last because he knew it wouldn't help me in the slightest. Instead, he stroked my hair from my head to my back with long, slow movements and he pressed his lips to the locks he was caressing.

"Shh, shh," he said, but when I looked up, his eyes too were darkening and the same sorrow was inscribed in his face as was in mine. I reached up to stroke his cheek, and he turned his face into my hand.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"Don't apologise," he told me, almost fiercely. "Everyone is feeling exactly the same way. I feel just like you, you know that Bella."

But he didn't know that we wouldn't survive. He didn't know that in five or six days we would be dead and our daughter would be running for her life across continents with our friend, not us. He didn't know that she would be mourning us in less than a week.

Still, I pulled myself together then. He was right in one respect at least. We had to make the most of whatever we had, everything we had.

"I love you," I told him.

"As I love you," he replied.

I kissed him, properly, deeply, until I didn't have to think any more.

At some point close to midnight he wished me a merry Christmas and I had to concede that it was the best Christmas I had ever had, just because it was my only Christmas with Edward and with Renesmee. It was our first Christmas together, even if it was our last. And at least it was only my last Christmas, only Edward's last Christmas. At least it wasn't to be Renesmee's last Christmas.

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A/N: Thank you for reading through December to May (I am _such _a slow writer, sorry) and I hope you enjoyed it.


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